Abstract
Drug delivery systems that safely and consistently improve transport of poorly absorbed compounds across epithelial barriers are highly sought within the drug delivery field. The use of chemical permeation enhancers is one of the simplest and widely tested approaches to improve transmucosal permeability via oral, nasal, buccal, ocular and pulmonary routes. To date, only a small number of permeation enhancers have progressed to clinical trials, and only one product that includes a permeation enhancer has reached the pharmaceutical market. This editorial is an introduction to the special issue entitled Transmucosal Absorption Enhancers in the Drug Delivery Field (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/pharmaceutics/special_issues/transmucosal_absorption_enhancers). The guest editors outline the scope of the issue, reflect on the results and the conclusions of the 19 articles published in the issue and provide an outlook on the use of permeation enhancers in the drug delivery field.
Highlights
Developing delivery strategies to assist movement of compounds across functionally conserved and structurally diverse epithelial barriers challenges drug delivery scientists
Drug delivery systems that safely and consistently improve transport of poorly absorbed compounds across epithelial barriers are highly sought within the drug delivery field
Only a small number of permeation enhancers have progressed to clinical trials, and only one product that includes a permeation enhancer has reached the pharmaceutical market
Summary
Developing delivery strategies to assist movement of compounds across functionally conserved and structurally diverse epithelial barriers challenges drug delivery scientists. In cases where chemical modification is not feasible or unlikely to appreciably alter bioavailability, there may be no alternative but to formulate the active in an injectable dosage form, at considerable cost to manufacturers and inconvenience to patients This is currently the case for many therapeutic macromolecules, including peptides, proteins and nucleic acids. Ongoing research attempts to address this problem through (i) identification of safer and more selective PEs that are not associated with some of the in vitro cytotoxicity that is observed with ionizable surfactants and chelating agents [4], and (ii) by investigating the impediments to translation of established PEs that have demonstrated promising enhancement action in pre-clinical delivery models This Special Issue presents an insight in to some of the current research on PEs. Research topics include assessment of natural, semi-synthetic and fully synthetic PEs in pulmonary, ocular, buccal, intestinal, vaginal and nasal delivery. Contributing authors reviewed PEs by category [7]
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