Abstract

Drugs that have been covalently altered with lipids are known as lipid-drug conjugates. Drug characteristics are altered and their lipophilicity is increased when lipids are conjugated to drug molecules. The conjugates exhibit a number of benefits, including increased oral bioavailability, improved lymphatic targeting, improved tumor targeting, and reduced cytotoxicity. Different conjugation techniques and chemical bridges can be utilized to create lipid-drug conjugates depending on the chemical makeup of medicines and lipids. For lipid-drug conjugates to function at their best, linkers and/or conjugation techniques are essential. They control how medications are released from lipid-drug conjugates. The numerous lipids utilized to make lipid-drug conjugates and the various conjugation techniques are outlined in this article. Although these conjugates can be delivered without a delivery vehicle, many of them are put into suitable delivery techniques. Drug loading into lipophilic parts of vehicles can be considerably improved by the lipid component in the conjugates, leading to combinations with significant drug content and superior stability.

Keywords: Lipid drug conjugates, drug delivery, targeting, conjugation, linkers, prodrug.