Nanostructured Lipid Carriers Enriched Hydrogels for Skin Topical Administration of Quercetin and Omega-3 Fatty Acid

Abstract

Chronic skin exposure to external hostile agents (e.g., UV radiation, microorganisms, and oxidizing chemicals) may increase oxidative stress, causing skin damage and aging. Because of their well-known skincare and protective benefits, quercetin (Q) and omega-3 fatty acids (ω3) have attracted the attention of the dermocosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors. However, both bioactives have inherent properties that limit their efficient skin delivery. Therefore, nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) and enriched PFC® hydrogels (HGs) have been developed as a dual-approach vehicle for Q and/or ω3 skin topical administration to improve bioactives’ stability and skin permeation. Two NLC formulations were prepared with the same lipid composition but differing in surfactant composition (NLC1—soy lecithin and poloxamer 407; NLC2—Tween® 80 and dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (DOSS)), which have an impact on physicochemical properties and pharmaceutical and therapeutic performance. Despite both NLCs presenting high Q loading capacity, NLC2′s physicochemical properties make them more suitable for topical skin administration and ensure longer colloidal stability. Additionally, NLC2 demonstrated a more sustained Q release, indicating higher bioactive storage while improving permeability. The occlusive effect of NLCs-enriched HGs also has a positive impact on skin permeability. Q-loaded NLC2, with or without ω3, -enriched HGs demonstrated efficacy as antioxidant and photoprotective formulations as well as effective reduction in S. aureus growth, indicating that they constitute a promising approach for topical skin administration to prevent skin aging and other damaging cutaneous processes.

Innovative Approaches for Maintaining and Enhancing Skin Health and Managing Skin Diseases through Microbiome-Targeted Strategies

“…Novel strategies in the field of dermatology employ nanocarriers to improve the topical applications of probiotics and prebiotics [4,6]. These nanocarriers, often in the form of nanoparticles or nanoemulsions, serve as efficient vehicles for loading and delivering probiotic strains to the skin.…”

“…Promising new opportunities in the field of dermatology have recently arisen with the development of nanotechnology. Scientists and researchers have been investigating the development of innovative nanotechnology that provides efficacy in the restoration and control of the skin microbiome [3,4]. Nanoparticles can generally be utilized for delivering drugs in a way that improves their resistance to enzymatic degradation, targets specific locations, increases bioavailability, solubilizes them for intravascular transport, and maintains their effects [5].…”

Antimicrobial Activity of Dimeric Flavonoids

“…Flavonoids were described in the literature as processing anti-allergic [22][23][24][25], anti-inflammatory [25][26][27][28][29][30], immunomodulatory [31][32][33], antitumor [33][34][35][36] and antimicrobial [15,21,[37][38][39][40][41] properties, which are the reasons explaining their great interest in the food, pharmaceutical and medical industries. Their toxicity levels are greatly reduced and are therefore currently critical for the development of new medicines [11,13,21,[42][43][44].…”