Liquid crystals (LCs) are an intermediate state of matter that exists between conventional solids and liquids. They are vital to the existence of life as several critical components in living organisms such as cell wall and biochemical fluids are liquid crystalline in nature. Drug delivery based on LCs is a vast field of research. In recent years there has been a huge leap in interest into using LCs, particularly lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs), as nanoparticles (cubosomes and hexosomes) for drug delivery applications. Such nanoparticle-based drug delivery promise efficient, controlled and target selective release of drugs. This paper reviews the concepts and techniques involved in LLC-based drug delivery. The influence of physical properties of LCs on the drug carrier design and efficiency, key aspects of the methods used to identify, characterize and analyse lyotropic nanoparticles and the feasibility of production of nanoparticles for their widespread usage are discussed. The study suggests that LC-based nanoparticles have the potential to revolutionize drug delivery industry, however a reliable method for production of nanoparticles on a large scale needs to be explored further.

液晶（LC）是物质的一种中间状态，存在于常规固体和液体之间。它们对生命的生存至关重要，因为活生物体中的几个关键成分（例如细胞壁和生化液）本质上是液晶。基于LC的药物输送是一个广阔的研究领域。近年来，人们对使用LC（尤其是溶致液晶（LLC））作为纳米颗粒（立方体和六体）用于药物输送应用有了极大的兴趣。这种基于纳米颗粒的药物递送有望有效，受控和靶向地选择性释放药物。本文回顾了基于LLC的药物输送的概念和技术。液相色谱的物理性质对药物载体设计和效率的影响，用于鉴定，表征和分析溶致性纳米粒子，并讨论了其广泛应用生产纳米粒子的可行性。研究表明，基于LC的纳米颗粒具有彻底改变药物输送行业的潜力，但是，需要进一步探索大规模生产纳米颗粒的可靠方法。