Formulation and Applications of Lipid-Based Nanovehicles: Spotlight on Self-emulsifying Systems

Abstract

Introduction Synthesizing new drugs alone is not sufficient to establish advancement in drug therapy. The conventional drug delivery systems are destined to failure, due to many factors, mainly low drug solubility, poor absorption, enzymatic degradation, rapid metabolism, cellular efflux and variability in plasma concentration. 1 Incorporation of lipids in drug delivery has been a trend in the past decades. Lipid-based carriers are composed of phospholipids, cholesterol, cholesterol esters and triglycerides among others. 2 The physiochemical diversity of lipids, their biocompatibility and their resemblance to body tissue constituents offer a promising system for poorly water-soluble and lipophilic drugs. 3 Lipid carriers (LCs) provide several advantages that enable it to be an ideal vehicle for drug delivery. Namely; it can be manipulated according to product requirements whether its disease conditions, route of administration, stability, toxicity or efficacy. Besides, lipid-based formulations (LBFs) can provide a controlled release delivery based on their biocompatibility with body tissue after administration, it's not susceptible to erosion phenomena, the feasibility of scaling up, 4 moreover, it provides enhanced drug loading, ability to carry both lipophilic and hydrophilic drugs and stability. However, LCs face certain limitations such as, lipid crystallization that leads to polymorphism with different drug loading capacity, different shapes, and various kinetic distributions. High-pressure homogenization technique is most commonly used and it might cause drug degradation in high molecular weight compounds. Lipid-based carriers are recognized as safe and efficient hence they have been used as alluring candidates for pharmaceutical, as well as vaccines, diagnostics, and nutraceutical formulations. Therefore, lipid-based drug delivery (LBDD) systems have gained much importance in recent years due to their ability to improve the solubility and bioavailability of drugs with poor water solubility. Self-emulsifying drug delivery systems which belongs to LBFs are efficient, sophisticated, and more patient compliant formulation method for poorly water soluble drugs. It may enhance drug solubility, dissolution behavior in the GIT, gut permeability and thus may increase the absorption of the poorly water soluble model drug. This paper illustrates different types of LBFs to be precise, emulsions, vesicular systems, and lipid particulate systems and their subcategories, focusing on self-nanoemulsifying systems and their applications in the pharmaceutical field. Materials and Methods In this review, related articles and research papers from different reliable researchers and database such as Elsevier, Springer and MDPI were collected and discussed. The search was constructed based on the following keywords: lipid-based drug delivery, self-nanoemulsifying system, lipid vesicular systems.

A Comprehensive Overview of Lipid-Based Drug Delivery Approach

“…Incorporating lipids in drug delivery systems has been considered a revolutionary step in the past decades. LBDDS offered a lot of comprehensive solutions and appropriate vehicles for the delivery of poorly water-soluble drugs (PWSDs), particularly very lipophilic drugs (grease balls) (Mehanna and Mneimneh 2021;Rawat et al 2008). LBDDS are considered one of the most important and popular strategies used to increase bioavailability of PWSDs.…”

Application of Box-Behnken Design in the Preparation, Optimization, and In-Vivo Pharmacokinetic Evaluation of Oral Tadalafil-Loaded Niosomal Film

“…Several strategies in the nanotechnology were adopted to enhance tadalafil solubility and dissolution rate [14][15][16][17][18]. Nevertheless, the niosomal approach to enhance tadalafil solubility has not been studied before despite all the merits that characterized this nanoparticulate system Niosomes are bi-layered nanocarriers that can be prepared by the addition of nonionic surfactant to cholesterol in a proper proportion followed by its hydration in aqueous media [19]. Niosomes possess many advantages over other nanocarriers due to their high biocompatibility, biodegradability, high stability, and ease of surface modification.…”

“…Niosomes are bi-layered nanocarriers that can be prepared by the addition of non-ionic surfactant to cholesterol in a proper proportion followed by its hydration in aqueous media [ 19 ]. Niosomes possess many advantages over other nanocarriers due to their high biocompatibility, biodegradability, high stability, and ease of surface modification.…”

Innovative pulmonary targeting of terbutaline sulfate-laded novasomes for non-invasive tackling of asthma: statistical optimization and comparative in vitro/in vivo evaluation

“…Novasomes (NVS) are a new paradigm derived from liposomes and they can be also considered a variation of niosomes. NVS are promising patented non-phospholipid vesicles with a submicron size range (100–1000 nm) (Mehanna & Mneimneh, 2020 ). They are composed of a mixture of cholesterol, free fatty acids and polyoxyethylene fatty acid monoesters.…”