Abstract
Human skin could be a prime target to deliver drugs into the human body as it is the largest organ of human body. However, the main challenge of delivering drug into the skin is the stratum corneum (SC), the outer layer of epidermis, which performs the main barrier function of the skin. Scientists have developed several techniques to overcome the barrier properties of the skin, which include other physical and chemical techniques. The most common and convenient technique is to use special formulation additives (chemical enhancers, CEs) which either drags the drug molecule along with it or make changes in the SC structure, thereby allowing the drug molecule to penetrate in to the SC. The main focus is to deliver drugs in the certain layers of the skin (for topical delivery) or ensuring proper percutaneous absorption (for transdermal delivery). However, skin drug delivery is still very challenging as different CEs act in different ways on the skin and they have different types of interaction with different drugs. Therefore, proper understanding on the mechanism of action of CE is mandatory. In this article, the effect of several CEs on skin has been reviewed based on the published articles. The main aim is to compile the recent knowledge on skin-CE interaction in order to design a topical and transdermal formulation efficiently. A properly designed formulation would help the drug either to deposit into the target layer or to cross the barrier membrane to reach the systemic circulation.
Highlights
Since skin is the largest organ of the body, it could be a potential route to deliver drugs into the body
The chemical enhancers improve the permeation of the molecules in the skin in a most cheap and effective way
We have summarized the studies conducted till on different Chemical enhancers (CEs)
Summary
Since skin is the largest organ of the body, it could be a potential route to deliver drugs into the body. Barrier property of the outer layer of the skin (stratum corneum, SC) limits the delivery of all types of drug in skin. Topical and transdermal formulations are delivered through the skin, targeting different layers of the skin and systemic circulation, respectively. Topical formulation delivers therapeutically effective concentration of a compound in the specific layer of the skin, to impart a local effect. In order to reach the specific layer of the skin and systemic circulation, a drug molecule must cross the SC and this only possible if barrier property of the skin is overcome. Chemical enhancers (CEs) are chemical agents which modify the SC barrier function and thereby allow molecules to penetrate into the skin. This article aims to summarize the recent findings on some commonly used CEs so that their incorporation into the formulation can develop more effective topical or transdermal or cosmetic products
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