Liposomal encapsulation is a
drug delivery strategy with many advantages, such as improved bioavailability, ability to carry large
drug loads, as well as controllability and specificity towards various targeted diseased tissues. Currently, most preparation techniques require an additional extrusion or filtering step to obtain monodisperse
liposomes with the size of less than 100 nm. In this study, a compact
liposome extruder was designed at a cost of $4.00 and used to synthesize
liposome suspensions with defined particle size and high homogeneity for
Murrayafoline A (Mu-A) loading and release. The synthesized MuA-loaded
liposomes displayed a biphasic drug release and remained stable under the storage condition of 4°C. They also significantly reduced the viability of HepG2 cells in the
cancer spheroids by 25%. The low-cost, flexible
liposome extruder would allow the researchers to study
liposomes and their applications in a cost-effective manner.