Preclinical and Clinical Aspects of Antimicrobial Drugs Delivered Through Ethosomal Vesicles

As skin is an integumentary organ of the body, it acts as the portal of entry for extraneous substances for their effective topical and transdermal delivery. Possessing various advantages, it has the limitation of low permeability of drugs across it, limiting the efficacy of drugs. Therefore, various carrier systems have been developed to enhance the permeation to the deep tissues. Most recently, ethosomes have been developed as efficient vesicles to deliver the drug into deep strata of the epidermis. A large number of drugs belonging to various therapeutic categories have been incorporated in these vesicles. These systems exhibited enhanced permeability to treat deep infections of the skin, initiating a new era in vesicular research for topical drug delivery. Various reports show promising future of ethosomes for topical, transdermal and dermal delivery of various antimicrobial agents more effectively, to treat skin diseases and providing better in vivo profiles thus suggesting the need of the clinical testing of these carriers for their widespread utility. So, to assess its safety and efficacy various preclinical and clinical studies were conducted. The present review focuses on the preclinical and clinical aspect of delivery of various antimicrobial agents such as antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral agents through ethosomal vesicular carriers illustrating enhanced safety and efficacy by designing these carriers.