What are liposomes and where are they used?
Many people have come across the words “liposome, liposomes, liposomales ” but were quite unfamiliar with these terms. What are liposomes? Here is a simplified explanation of these terms and their meaning in medicine. But it is all too easy to associate this term with health or a quality label, which is wrong. It is neither a mark of quality nor can a liposome in itself have a positive effect on our health.
liposomes
Liposomes were discovered in England in 1964 by a medical group headed by hematologist Alec Douglas Bangham .
These doctors discovered the value of liposomes as a means of transport, for example to bring a certain drug to its destination in our body undamaged. Liposomes are the smallest fat components (vesicles). A certain medication can be packaged in these tiny fat bubbles and then given to the patient orally. Surrounded by these bubbles, which are in the nanometer range , the drug can survive the stomach acid undamaged and therefore there is no loss. Another advantage is that liposomes have the same or very similar surface structures as our cells, which is also very important for absorption. The two properties mentioned above alone guarantee a much better effectiveness of a drug. You can find more information on how and why liposomes work on this page with an explanatory graphic.
Efficacy – Stomach
In the case of drugs taken orally, these must first pass through the aggressive stomach acid, which in many cases (actually in most cases) reduces the effectiveness of the drug. However, many of these drugs are also intolerable for the stomach, so they attack the gastric mucosa, for example. That is why most medicines should be taken after eating to reduce these intolerances. The stomach’s job is to break down food with its stomach acid, breaking it down into different components so that they can then be absorbed by our intestines. Drugs encapsulated in liposomes cannot be harmed by the aggressive stomach acid and together they then migrate to the intestine.
our gut
Our gut is one of the most important organs, regulates digestion but plays a very important role in general immune defence. 85% of our immune system is regulated by our gut.
The liposomes described above are now absorbed by our intestinal villi after passing through the stomach. In order for these intestinal villi to be able to absorb and utilize as much of our liposomes as possible, these liposomes must be the right size. We are talking about the particle size here. Liposomes should therefore have a particle size between 0.00015 millimeters and 0.00025 millimeters. (Or expressed in nanometers 150 Nm – 250 Nm) If these particles are too large, they are eliminated. Once the liposomes with their “cargo “ have been absorbed by the intestinal villi, they are released from there into our bloodstream. Now the journey of our liposomes continues until they reach their actual destination, our cells.
Our cells
When they arrive at our cells, the liposomes unload their cargo. Since the outer structure of the liposomes is the same or very similar to that of our cells, this transfer is easy and effective. Now the drug (including vitamin C) arrives directly at its destination, where it can then take effect. With the liposomal method of this delivery, the effectiveness (bioavailability) has increased enormously in contrast to the conventional administration. We are talking about a bioavailability of up to 95%. The bioavailability of vitamin C is very low and if we take a vitamin C tablet of 1000 mg, our body only gets 180 mg. In other words, the bioavailability of conventional vitamin C is only around 18%.
Bioavailability of drugs and vitamins
Bioavailability actually means the effectiveness of a drug or vitamin. So how our body can use it. There are very big differences and the lower the bioavailability of a substance, the more of it you would have to take in order to achieve the desired effectiveness. Well, what happens, for example, if you take vitamin C in large amounts because of its low bioavailability? The result is that vitamin C in its pure form draws water out of the intestines and diarrhea is the result. The intolerable amount of vitamin C is flushed out again. This is also referred to as intestinal tolerance. In the past, vitamin C infusions were often used to avoid this reaction. These vitamin C infusions and cons but also had serious disadvantages. Around To circumvent these disadvantages, liposomal vitamin C is used today. This also enables constant blood saturation to be achieved.