Enhancing Skin Delivery of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid with Transferosome Using Lyso-Phospholipid and Surfactant

Abstract

In order to enhance the clinical efficacy of 5-aminolevulinic acid-induced photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT), liposomal formulations using bulk hydrogenated phospholipids from soybean were introduced. Three types of lipids, S75-3, S100-3, and SL80-3 were used for formulating ALA. The pH of all the liposomal ALA is 4.5~5.5 and the size is 50~200 nm. All the liposomal formulations gave better ex vivo ALA skin penetration using nude mice skin in Franz cell than free ALA did. Among them, SL80-3 including 22% of lyso-phosphocholine achieved excellent ALA penetration when compared with those of S75-3 and S100-3 which have only 1~2% of lyso-phospholipids. S100-3 showed a little better results than S75-3 did. Addition of humectants (glycerine, propylene glycol, butylene glycol, betaine) in liposomal ALA formulated with SL80-3 produced little enhancing effect in ALA penetration. On the other hand, addition of surfactants (Tween 20, 60, Brij 72, 76, 78) in same liposomal system produced significant increase in ALA penetration. Among them, transferosomal system of lyso-phospholipid, SL80-3 and the surfactant, Brij76 showed the highest ALA penetration. Furthermore, this system also established the highest in vivo PpIX biosynthesis in hairy mice skin of C57BL/6. These results concluded that the transferosome of SL80-3 and Brij76 produced the best results in both ALA penetration and PpIX biosynthesis, and proved good correlation between them.