Hemp Therapies Wiki / Liposomal Delivery Systems

Liposomes vs. Micelles vs. Nanoemulsions

Liposomes, micelles, and nanoemulsions are three distinct delivery structures, often confused because all three aim to improve how a compound is absorbed, despite being built very differently.

Liposome vs. Micelle

A liposome has a bilayer (two-layer) membrane enclosing a water-filled center, while a micelle is a single-layer (monolayer) sphere with no internal water compartment. Micelles are generally smaller than liposomes, commonly only a few to several tens of nanometers in diameter, compared with the broader overall size range of liposomes. Because a liposome has both a lipid layer and a water-filled core, it can carry water-soluble and fat-soluble compounds within the same particle, whereas a micelle’s lack of a water core limits it mainly to carrying fat-soluble material in its core.

Liposome vs. Nanoemulsion

A nanoemulsion is a dispersion of oil droplets suspended in water, or water droplets in oil, stabilized by surfactant molecules at the droplet surface, rather than a self-assembled lipid bilayer structure. Nanoemulsion droplets are typically reported in the range of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers and are described in the literature as thermodynamically less stable over time compared with structurally self-assembled liposomes.

Liposomes and Lipid Nanoparticles

Lipid nanoparticles used in some pharmaceutical applications, including certain mRNA vaccine formulations, share compositional overlap with liposomes — phospholipids, cholesterol, PEGylated lipids — but are engineered with a different internal organization suited to carrying nucleic acid material rather than a simple aqueous payload.

Summary

Liposomes, micelles, nanoemulsions, and lipid nanoparticles are structurally distinct delivery systems that are sometimes marketed with overlapping language. The liposome’s defining feature — a bilayer membrane enclosing a water-filled core — is what allows it to carry both water-soluble and fat-soluble compounds in one particle, a capability the other structures don’t share in the same way.