Lipid bilayer-coated nanoparticles: mimetism for biomedical applications

Abstract

Living organisms are made of self-assembled nanostructures. Therefore, the control of sizes, shapes, textures, or chemical functions during chemical synthesis, as managed by nanotechnology, leads to a myriad of possibilities in the field of biomedical applications. One of the main approaches in this area, also known as nanomedicine, is the production of biomimetic nanoparticles, which take profit from either natural products or bioinspired materials. Cell-cell communications are strongly dependent on molecular arrays displayed at the cell surface in the context of lipid bilayers. Therefore, the mimicry of such coatings has gained great interest during the last decades. Herein we summarize the rationale and the methodologies related to this approach, with a special focus on the delivery of drugs and vaccines. The challenges and opportunities in this area, along with some selected examples will be discussed as well.