Trojan horse, huge hollow wooden horse constructed by the Greeks to gain entrance into Troy during the Trojan War. The horse was built by Epeius, a master carpenter and pugilist. The Greeks, pretending to desert the war, sailed to the nearby island of Tenedos, leaving behind Sinon, who persuaded the Trojans that the horse was an offering to Athena (goddess of war) that would make Troy impregnable. Despite the warnings of Laocoön and Cassandra, the horse was taken inside the city gates. That night Greek warriors emerged from it and opened the gates to let in the returned Greek army. The story is told at length in Book II of the Aeneid and is touched upon in the Odyssey. The term Trojan horse has come to refer to subversion introduced from the outside. Beginning in the late 20th century, the name “Trojan horse” was applied to deceptively benign computer codes that seem like legitimate applications but are written to damage or disrupt a computer’s programming or to steal personal information.

Trojan Horse strategy.(J. Mater. Chem. B, 2023)

A Trojan Horse is an innocuous appearing container for hiding something within to get past defenses or some other obstacle. Trojan Horses can be used for both good and evil. The key is how to recognize and use them. For Clodronate Liposomes,  liposomes are used as a Trojan horse for the intracellular introduction and accumulation of effector molecules. After injection, liposomes, used as Trojan horses in this case, will be ingested and digested by macrophages followed by intracellular release and accumulation of clodronate. At a certain intracellular concentration, clodronate induces apoptosis of the macrophage.