Elegant flexible vesicular nanocarriers for the efficient skin delivery of topically applied drugs-

Background: Skin diseases represent a major health concern worldwide and negatively impact patients’ quality of life. Despite the availability of various efficacious drugs, their therapeutic outcome is often limited due to shortcomings related to the formidable skin barrier and unfavorable physicochemical properties of drugs. Flexible nano-vesicles have shown tremendous potential to overcome these hurdles and improve the local therapeutic effect of these drugs. Objective: This review article is aimed to shed light on flexible nano-vesicular carriers as a means to combat skin diseases. Methods: The literature was reviewed using PubMed database using various keywords such as liposomes, flexible (deformable liposomes) (transferosomes), ethosomes, transethosomes, niosomes, and spanlastics. Results: Liposomes and niosomes were found effective for the loading and release of both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs. However, their limited skin penetration led to drug delivery to the outermost layers of skin only. This necessitates the search for innovative vesicular carriers, including liposomes, flexible (deformable liposomes), ethosomes, transethosomes, and spanlastics. These flexible nano-vesicular carriers showed enhanced drug delivery and deposition across various skin layers, which was better than their corresponding conventional vesicles. This resulted in superior drug efficacy against various skin diseases such as skin cancer, inflammatory skin diseases, superficial fungal infections, etc. Conclusion: Flexible nano-vesicular carriers have proven themselves as efficient drug delivery systems that are able to deliver their cargo into the deep skin layers and thus, improve the therapeutic outcome of various skin diseases. However, there remain some challenges that need to be addressed before these nanocarriers can be translated from the lab to clinics.

Novel Nanoproniosomal Vesicular carriers for the effective and efficient Drug Delivery: Fundamentals, Recent Advancements and Applications

Nanotechnology is an emerging technology that has brought the upheaval reforms in the domain of pharmaceutical sciences including the development of nanovesicular drug delivery carriers such as proniosomes, niosomes, liposomes, ethosomes, etc. Among them, proniosomes become superior and they surmount the problems of other vesicular carriers. Proniosomes are nano-sized vesicular structures of dry, free-flowing powder (or) gel with encapsulation of drugs in the vesicle that produce multilamellar niosomal dispersion after hydration and they possess the capacity to enhance solubility, permeability and bioavailability of diverse drugs. Proniosomes are suitable to deliver the drugs efficiently through transdermal route to accomplish controlled release action, increased therapeutic effectiveness to various diseases and upon application to the skin, the proniosmes are modified into niosomes in situ by hydration of water from the skin. This study aims to discuss different aspects of proniosomes such as merits, mechanism, types, components, preparation, characterization, drug release, market scenario, future trends and to explore proniosomes for various pharmaceutical applications in drug delivery via different routes, such as topical, transdermal, oral, parenteral, ocular, vaginal, nebulizer and intranasal routes. These proniosomes-derived niosomes are better and may offer an excellent, inexpensive alternative delivery, much more beneficial than other vesicular and conventional dosage forms.

PRONIOSOMES: A VESICULAR DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

In the development of new dosage forms, drug delivery using nanotechnology is playing a vital role. Vesicular drug delivery systems have gained wide attention in the field of nanotechnology, such as niosomes, liposomes and proniosomes. Among the vesicular carriers, proniosomes are superior. Proniosomes are water-soluble carrier particles that are coated with surfactant so these are dry formulations. They are rehydrated to use on agitation in hot aqueous media within minutes to form niosomal dispersion immediately. Both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugscan be incorporated into these proteasomes. The physical stability problems of niosomes like aggregation, fusion and leaking are minimized in proniosomes, routes, such as oral, parenteral, dermal and transdermal, ocular, oral mucosal, vaginal, pulmonary, and intranasal. Proniosomes prolong the existence of the drug in the systemic circulation and finally reduces toxicity. This review focuses on different aspects of proniosomes such as preparation, characterization, in vitro drug release, entrapment efficiency, applications in the present scenario in the market and future trends.

Ultraflexible Liposome Nanocargo as a Dermal and Transdermal Drug Delivery System

A selected active pharmaceutical ingredient must be incorporated into a cargo carrier in a particular manner so that it achieves its goal. An amalgamation of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) should be conducted in such a manner that it is simple, professional, and more beneficial. Lipids/polymers that are known to be used in nanocarriers for APIs can be transformed into a vesicular formulation, which offers elegant solutions to many problems. Phospholipids with other ingredients, such as ethanol and water, form suitable vesicular carriers for many drugs, overcoming many problems related to poor bioavailability, poor solubility, etc. Ultraflexible liposomes are novel carriers and new frontiers of drug delivery for transdermal systems. Auxiliary advances in vesicular carrier research have been made, enabling polymer-coated ethanolic liposomes to avoid detection by the body’s immune system—specifically, the cells of the reticuloendothelial system. Ultraflexible liposomes act as a cargo system and a nanotherapeutic approach for the transport of therapeutic drugs and bioactive agents. Various applications of liposome derivatives in different diseases are emphasized in this review.

Bilosomes: Superior Vesicular Carriers

: In the current era, many formulations have been designed in the form of vesicular carriers like liposomes and niosomes which have been proved to be one of the potential candidates for drug delivery by the oral route but due to the gastrointestinal environment i.e. pH, presence of enzymes, and bile salts, their use is limited. Because of these difficulties, research is being done to increase the stability and efficacy of the drug. Thus bilosomes have been developed as a potential vesicular carrier system for oral vaccine delivery, transdermal and parenteral targeted drug delivery. The present article covers various aspects related to the novel vesicular system that is based on bile salts called bilosomes, for targetted drug delivery systems. It includes information related to bilosome composition, formulation techniques, characterization methods, applications in oral immunization as vaccine delivery approach and advantages over conventional nanocarriers such as liposomes and niosomes. It also focuses on the stability and applications of bilosomes along with scalability and potentiality in biomedical field of oral immunization against various dreadful diseases.

The Scope and Challenges of Vesicular Carrier-Mediated Delivery of Docetaxel for the Management of Cancer

Since the discovery of liposomes, these vesicular carriers have attracted the researchers from all the vistas of the biomedical domain to explore and harness the potential benefits. Many novel drug delivery-based products have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and other federal agencies of the globe, out of which the major share is of the liposomes and related carriers. Taking cognizance of it, the US-FDA has recently come up with ‘Guidance for Industry on Liposome Drug Products’. In cancer management, chemotherapy is the most frequently employed approach which is still not devoid of untoward challenges and side effects. In chemotherapy, the taxanes, esp. Docetaxel shares a huge percentage in the prescription pattern. Also, the first marketed liposomal product was encasing one drug of this category. Henceforth, the present review will highlight the advances in the delivery of taxanes, in particular docetaxel, with an emphasis on the need, success and pharmacoeconomic aspects of such vesicular-carrier mediated docetaxel delivery.