Electrostatic self-assembly was applied to fabricate novel-structured magnetic liposomes. According to the charge characteristics of the magnetic nanoparticles and the drug-loaded liposomes, magnetic liposomes were fabricated by alternately assembling the suitable polyelectrolytes and magnetic nanoparticles onto the drug-loaded liposomes. TEM photograph provided direct evidence for successful fabrication of the novel-structured magnetic liposomes. It was also found that electrostatic self-assembly is a universal approach to prepare novel-structured magnetic liposomes with tunable size. The reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method was established to determine the content of the drug in the magnetic liposomes. The content of the magnetic nanoparticles in the magnetic liposomes was determined by UV spectrophotometry, which proved that the content of magnetic nanoparticles in novel-structured magnetic liposomes was higher than in traditional-structured magnetic liposomes. In vitro drug release from the magnetic liposomes was carried out, and fitting of the release curve using Curve Expert software indicated that the in vitro drug release of the magnetic liposomes was in accordance with the First-order equation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.