Stable plurilamellar vesicles

US5169637A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• The Liposome Company, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Robert P. Lenk · Lambertville, US
• Michael W. Fountain · Plainsboro, US
• Andrew S. Janoff · Yardley, US
• Mircea C. Popescu · Plainsboro, US
• Steven J. Weiss · Plainsboro, US
• Richard S. Ginsberg · Jamesburg, US
• Marc J. Ostro · New Brunswick, US
• Sol M. Gruner · Ithaca, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 2, 1991
• Grant date: Dec 8, 1992
• Expiry date: Apr 2, 2011

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02A50/30
• WIPO field: Pharmaceuticals
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A new and substantially improved type of lipid vesicle, called stable plurilamellar vesicles (SPLVs), are described, as well as the process for making the same and X-ray diffraction methods for identifying the same. SPLVs are characterized by lipid bilayers enclosing aqueous compartments containing one or more entrapped solutes, the concentration of such solutes in each aqueous compartment being substantially equal to the emunization of solutes used to prepare the SPLVs. The bilayers of SPLVs are substantially non-compressed. SPLVs are stable during storage and can be used in vivo for the sustained release of compounds and in the treatment of disease.