Vesicular Nanocarriers: A Potential Platform for Dermal and Transdermal Drug Delivery

Abstract

The skin as a route of drug administration may offer numerous advantages despite its barrier nature which hinders most drugs to penetrate into and permeate across it. The main obstacle for drug permeation through the skin is the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of the skin. During the past decades, there has been a great interest in vesicular carriers as a tool to improve dermal and transdermal delivery of drugs. Vesicular carriers include liposomes, ultradeformable liposomes, ethosomes, and niosomes. These carrier systems are able to augment the skin drug permeation by enhancing drug solubilization in the formulation, controlling active drug release, improving drug partitioning into the skin, and fluidizing skin lipids. A wide variety of materials can be utilized to prepare vesicles, which are commonly composed of phospholipids (liposomes) or non-ionic surfactants (niosomes). Vesicle composition and method of preparation influence their physicochemical properties (size, charge, deformability) and therefore their efficacy as drug delivery systems. This chapter gives an overview of different vesicular carrier systems, with particular emphasis on the development of these delivery systems in light of comprehensive understanding of physicochemical properties of drug and delivery carriers, process and formulation variables, mechanism of skin delivery, recent technological improvements, and specific limitations.