Nanocochleates : A Novel Drug Delivery Technology

Drug delivery systems provide multiple advantages to existing drugs as well as new drugs; the main advantage resides in improving the safety of drugs by decreasing the side effects, increasing the efficacy, enhancing the drug performance, which leads to increased patient compliance. Various formulations with liposomes have allowed the development of a new class of delivery vehicles called cochleates. These are stable, lipid based delivery formulations whose structure and properties are very different from liposomes. Liposomes are composed of lipid bilayer membranes with aqueous space bounded by the lipid bilayer 1. This lipid bilayer is susceptible to attack by harsh environment conditions like pH, lipase degradation 2 and temperature 3. Cochleates protects the entrapped molecules from harsh environmental conditions. They are stable to lyophilization and can be reconstituted with liquid prior to administration 2. Cochleate is most versatile technology for the delivery of a wide range of drugs 4 and fragile molecules such as proteins and peptides 5. They were invented by Papahadjopoulos in 1975 as an intermediate in the preparation of large unilamellar vesicles 6. Cochleates are calcium-phospholipid structures composed of naturally occurring materials that “wrap” around the drug or nutrient being introduced into the body 7