Nanocarriers and their Actions to Improve Skin Permeability and Transdermal Drug Delivery

Abstract

Transdermal drug delivery is impeded by the natural barrier of epidermis namely stratum corneum. This limits the route to transport of drugs with a log octanol-water partition coefficient of 1 to 3, molecular weight of less than 500 Da and melting point of less than 200°C. Nanotechnology has received widespread investigation as nanocarriers are deemed to be able to fluidize the stratum corneum as a function of size, shape, surface charges, and hydrophilicity-hydrophobicity balance, while delivering drugs across the skin barrier. This review provides an overview and update on the latest designs of liposomes, ethosomes, transfersomes, niosomes, magnetosomes, oilin- water nanoemulsions, water-in-oil nanoemulsions, bicontinuous nanoemulsions, covalently crosslinked polysaccharide nanoparticles, ionically crosslinked polysaccharide nanoparticles, polyelectrolyte coacervated nanoparticles and hydrophobically modified polysaccharide nanoparticles with respect to their ability to fuse or fluidize lipid/protein/tight junction regimes of skin, and effect changes in skin permeability and drug flux. Universal relationships of nanocarrier size, zeta potential and chemical composition on transdermal permeation characteristics of drugs will be developed and discussed.

Deformable Nanovesicles Synthesized through an Adaptable Microfluidic Platform for Enhanced Localized Transdermal Drug Delivery

“…NV size is perhaps the single most important factor for effective drug delivery by many routes [34, 35] and this is especially the case for transdermal delivery [36, 37]. As mentioned earlier, the limiting factor to NV-based transdermal drug delivery is transport across the stratum corneum, the main functional barrier and the outermost layer of the epidermis.…”

“…The zeta potential of an NV is its overall charge in a particular vehicle and, in addition to size, has a great influence on particle penetrance [36]. Zeta potential has implications in passive targeting of the NVs, as well as NV stability in solution.…”

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“…The mechanism by which the fatty acid esters will help in enhancing the penetration is not yet elucidated. However, it is believed that the enhance penetration is due to the solubilisation of SC by fatty acid esters 13,14,15 .…”

Current application of phytocompound-based nanocosmeceuticals for beauty and skin therapy

“…Recently, individual phytocompounds, such as curcumin, were developed using nanoniosome methods in the size range of 91 nm and showed enhanced skin protective activity. [208][209][210][211][212][213][214][215] From the earlier studies, phytocompound-containing nanoniosomes may be useful for both cosmeceuticals and pharmaceutical sectors.…”