Zhang XJ, Jiang XY, Ma YL, Huang FY, Huang ZW. Encapsulating taurine into liposomes: A promising therapeutic for liver fibrosis. World J Gastroenterol 2024; 30(41): 4509-4513 [PMID: 39534415 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i41.4509]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Zheng-Wei Huang, PhD, Associate Professor, College of Pharmacy, Jinan University, No. 855 East Xingye Dadao, Panyu District, Guangzhou 511443, Guangdong Province, China. huangzhengw@jnu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Xue-Juan Zhang, Xiao-Yi Jiang, Yi-Lin Ma, Fei-Yi Huang, Zheng-Wei Huang, College of Pharmacy, Jinan University, Guangzhou 511443, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang XJ contributed to manuscript writing and file sorting; Jiang XY contributed to core tip writing and Figure 2 making; Ma YL contributed to abstract writing and Figure 1 making; Huang FY contributed to Figure 3 making; Huang ZW contributed to theoretical framework, supervision, proofreading, and submission.
Supported bythe National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82373800; Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, No. 2024A1515011236; and General Program of Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Guangdong Province, No. 20241071.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zheng-Wei Huang, PhD, Associate Professor, College of Pharmacy, Jinan University, No. 855 East Xingye Dadao, Panyu District, Guangzhou 511443, Guangdong Province, China. huangzhengw@jnu.edu.cn
Received: August 17, 2024 Revised: September 24, 2024 Accepted: October 8, 2024 Published online: November 7, 2024 Processing time: 66 Days and 14.2 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Nanoparticle delivery systems are effective for delivering taurine (Tau). The nanoarchitecture of liposomes includes a water zone and a lipid membrane to accommodate hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs, respectively. Tau is a hydrophilic molecule with high water solubility, and it is expected to be loaded into the water zone. In theory, hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) may be targeted by Tau-incorporated liposomes via two mechanisms: Passive targeting and active targeting. Active targeting is more robust as it takes advantage of the unique features of the lesion site. Based on a formulation for common liposomes (lecithin plus cholesterol), Tau-based therapeutics was proposed to treat liver fibrosis as follows: A targetable liposome was fabricated through the combination of common lecithin and cholesterol, along with modified lecithin or cholesterol with HSC targetability. Tau was dispersed into the water zone of this liposomal system.
