Abstract

Background: Lipid nanoparticles are considered one of the most promising systems for controlled release of therapeutic molecules highly hydrophobic and with low biodisponibility. Solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipids carriers are widely seen as the workhorses of drug delivery systems because of low toxicity, enhanced encapsulation capacity, controlled drug kinetic release, easy tailoring and targeting and practicable scale up.

Conclusions: A new generation of hybrid lipid nanoparticles has emerged by combining the lipidic properties with polymers, proteins and metallic structures. The main features of hybrid lipid nanoparticles including popular methods for synthesis and characterization, biological and toxicological properties, administration routes, drug encapsulation strategies, tailoring and targeting, and potential systems for use in biomedicine are described in the present review.

Keywords: Lipid drug delivery systems, lipid particulate systems, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, hybrid lipid nanoparticles, hydrophobic drugs, lipid toxicity