Curing HIV/AIDS is still one of the great medical challenges of our time - but now, for the first time, there might be a chance to eradicate the deadly virus worldwide! And the origin of this incredible medical breakthrough lies nowhere other than in Hamburg, Biomol's hometown!
The best-known variant of "lipid-based drug delivery systems" is the so-called lipid nanoparticle. In the second part of our LBDDS blog series, we will first provide an overview of the developmental history of LNPs and the "endosomal escape" – a crucial point in the transport pathway of LNPs. We will then go into the potential medical applications of LNPs – all the way to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination!
Lipid-based drug delivery systems (LBDDS) have been studied and developed since the 1960s. In 2020, this technology received a lot of attention due to its application in SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. In this first part of our LBDDS two-parter, we will focus on the structure and composition of lipid-based drug delivery systems and the different types of LBDDS. In addition to their application in mRNA vaccines, there are other possible uses for LBDDS, some of which we would like to introduce here.
Lentiviruses are used as viral vectors to transfer a specific genetic sequence into target cells. But what are lentiviruses, how do these viral research tools work, and what are the potential applications?