Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 21, Issue 20, 2015

Stratum corneum (SC), the outermost layer of the skin, constitutes an excellent protective physiological barrier, and is the main challenge in transdermal drug delivery. Many approaches have been used to enhance the penetration of drugs through this layer, covering passive and active methods or the combination of both. This opens the opportunity to broaden the spectrum of drugs that can be administered through the Read More

Skin delivery is more advantageous for drug administration than other routes since it is more compliant and can avoid the first-pass metabolic effect. More importantly, it can ensure stable blood level of transdermal drugs for a long period of time, avoiding fluctuation and reducing side effects. However, it is restricted by the barrier function of the stratum corneum. Therefore, significant attention has been paid to develo Read More

In recent years there has been a drive to create experimental techniques that can facilitate the accurate and precise prediction of transdermal permeation without the use of in vivo studies. This review considers why permeation data is essential, provides a brief summary as to how skin acts as a natural barrier to permeation and discusses why in vivo studies are undesirable. This is followed by an in-depth discussion on the ex Read More

Supersaturated systems have attracted interest to enhance the skin penetration because of the low cost and reduced risks of irritation with respect to other approaches. The mechanism is simply based on the increased drug driving force for transit out of the dosage form and penetrate the stratum corneum. Supersaturated systems can be obtained by preparation of solvent/non-solvent mixtures; or mixtures containing a ski Read More

Topically applied natural antioxidants can be an effective treatment for inhibiting oxidative damage and photoaging of the skin. Due to the barrier function of the stratum corneum (SC), it is necessary to use an enhancement approach to promote the cutaneous absorption of natural antioxidants. Some factors that should be considered when developing delivery systems for natural antioxidants include increased solubi Read More

The skin remains an attractive area for drug delivery. The skin, however, often limits the ingress of drugs, because of its very low permeability. Much research, focusing on employing a variety of physical and chemical methods, aimed at reversibly altering skin permeability in favour of compounds, has been reported. Of the many chemical approaches that exist, one comprises the use of vesicular carriers for delivering Read More

Drug-in-adhesive transdermal drug delivery matrix exploits intimate contact of the carrier with stratum corneum, the principal skin barrier to drug transport, to deliver the actives across the skin and into the systemic circulation. The main application challenges of drug-in-adhesive matrix lie in the physicochemical properties of skin varying with age, gender, ethnicity, health and environmental condition of patients. This in turn p Read More

Dendritic nanoparticles have been developed with auspicious properties like high loading capacity for guest molecules, low polydispersity and tunable end groups. Demonstrating increased cellular uptake and bypassed efflux transporters, dendritic nanoparticles may offer new treatment options for therapy-resistant diseases. New core-shell architectures address the drawbacks of initial approaches. Especially tecto-dendri Read More

Nanogel nanoparticles loaded with active compounds are referred to as Drug-loaded polymeric colloidal nanogels (DPCNs). These nanogels are emerging as promising carriers for transdermal drug delivery applications. Much interest has been directed towards the potential use of DPCNs to deliver a variety of drugs for either controlled or sustained drug delivery systems. Transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDS) have show Read More

The skin presents several advantages as an administration route, including the possibility of localizing drugs in the tissue and overcoming the first-pass effect. However, its use is limited by the barrier function of the tissue, which is provided mainly (but not exclusively) by the stratum corneum. Various strategies to overcome this layer, have been considered over the years, ranging from the use of physical methods such as ionto Read More

Lipid based drug delivery systems have been widely studied and reported over the past decade and offer a useful alternative to other colloidal drug delivery systems. Skin is a popular route of drug delivery for locally and systemically acting drugs and nanoparticles are reported as a potential formulation strategy for dermal delivery. Although the skin acts as a natural physical barrier against penetration of foreign materials, inc Read More

The skin has evolved to resist the penetration of foreign substances and particles. Effective topical drug delivery into and/or through the skin is hindered by these epidermal barriers. A range of physical enhancement methods has been developed to selectively overcome this barrier. This review discusses recent advances in physical drug delivery by broadly separating the techniques into two main areas; indirect and direct Read More

Transdermal drug delivery is impeded by the natural barrier of epidermis namely stratum corneum. This limits the route to transport of drugs with a log octanol-water partition coefficient of 1 to 3, molecular weight of less than 500 Da and melting point of less than 200°C. Nanotechnology has received widespread investigation as nanocarriers are deemed to be able to fluidize the stratum corneum as a function of size, shape, s Read More

Topical administration is an appealing method for drug delivery due to its non-invasiveness, selfcontrolled application, avoidance of first-pass metabolism in the liver and reduction of systemic side effects compared to other conventional routes such as oral and parenteral. However, topical administration must overcome the permeable barriers that skin and mucosa represent for the drug to achieve its desired therapeutic ef Read More

Proniosomes are liquid crystalline-compact niosomal hybrid that can be hydrated to form niosomal dispersion instantly before use. It is a promising drug carrier with better physical and chemical stability than niosomes. Proniosomes have the potential to be scaled up for industrial purposes. They have been remarkably considered for transdermal drug delivery because of their competences, including the penetration enhancing abi Read More

The prevalence of fungal infections of skin has increased rapidly, affecting approximately 40 million people across the globe. A wide variety of antifungal drugs has been utilized in the effective management of numerous dermatological infections. Topical treatment of fungal infections has proved to be quite advantageous due to various factors like targeting the site of infection, minimizing systemic side effects, enhanced ef Read More