Pharmaceutical nanotechnology meets natural products

Abstract

From the end of 90 s the pharmaceutical nanotechnology prompted colloidal drug delivery systems to move from the scientific speculation to the clinical use, thus providing suitable nanomedicines for the efficacious treatment of a number of diseases. The advantage of last generation nanomedicines is their feature to be modulated as a function of the therapeutic requirements. Recently, the pharmaceutical nanotechnology drove the attention also to natural drugs coming from medical plants thus allowing the possibility to achieve nanomedicines based on natural products. Therefore, the use of innovative drug delivery systems can provide an advancement of natural compounds by improving their biopharmaceutical features [1]. The topical application of natural substances to prevent or treat skin disorders represents an interesting and innovative field of application. The potentiality of ultradeformable vesicles as a possible topical delivery system for asiaticoside, a natural compound obtained from Centella asiatica was evaluated [2], because this compound exhibits collagen biosynthesis promoting activity. Asiaticoside-loaded ultradeformable vesicles elicited the greatest degree of collagen biosynthesis in human fibroblasts. Ultradeformable vesicles provided the greatest in vitro skin permeation of asiaticoside showing a 10-fold increase with respect to the free drug solution and favoured an increase in the in vivo collagen biosynthesis. It is also the case of Glycyrrhiza glabra L. extract, which was delivered by both ethosomes® [3] and niosomes [4] thus improving the anti-inflammatory activity of the delivered natural compound as demonstrated using an in vivo model of skin erythema on human volunteers. The use of vesicular nanocarriers allowed also the potential application of Citrus bergamia extracts for dermo-cosmetic use to treat non-pathological disorders, i.e. photo-ageing and photo-induced erythema. Not only topical application but also other administration routes are possible for nanomedicines based on natural compounds as well as their application for the treatment of severe pathologies, i.e. cancer disease.