The state of the art in core-shell type lipid polymer hybrid nanocarriers and beyond

The need to enhance the therapeutic effect of drugs and thus reduce their side effects is the reason for the emergence of today's drug delivery systems. With the advent of nanotechnology, numerous molecular structures - from carbon nanotubes to polymeric materials - have been developed, and significant progress has been made. However, all these promising results do not mean that drug delivery systems are a solution to all problems in pharmaceutical technology. This is because any drug delivery system, while having its advantages, also suffers from certain limitations. Therefore, new and hybrid structures are created by combining different materials. In this respect, lipid-polymer hybrid particles emerged as a core-shell structure, where the polymer core is covered with a layer of phospholipids, and have attracted attention in the academic community. This manuscript, which provides an overview of the fundamentals of these molecular architectures, begins with a description of lipid-polymer hybrid particles. Conventional and unconventional production methods for fabricating these structures are then described. This is followed by a section discussing how the physical properties of these particles are characterized and how the physical properties affect pharmaceutical activity. The final section discusses prominent examples from the literature.