Nanostructured Non-Ionic Surfactant Carrier-Based Gel for Topical Delivery of Desoximetasone

Abstract

Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune skin disease impacting the population globally. Pharmaceutical products developed to combat this condition commonly used in clinical settings are IV bolus or oral drug delivery routes. There are some major challenges for effectively developing new dosage forms for topical use: API physicochemical nature, the severity of the disease state, and low bioavailability present challenges for pharmaceutical product developers. For non-severe cases of psoriasis, topical drug delivery systems may be preferred or used in conjunction with oral or parenteral therapy to address local symptoms. Elastic vesicular systems, termed “niosomes”, are promising drug delivery vehicles developed to achieve improved drug delivery into biological membranes. This study aimed to effectively incorporate a corticosteroid into the niosomes for improving the drug bioavailability of desoximetasone, used to treat skin conditions via topical delivery. Niosomes characterization measurements were drug content, pH, spreadability, specific gravity, content uniformity, rheology, and physicochemical properties. Formulations used a topical gelling agent, Carbomer 980 to test for in vitro skin permeation testing (IVPT) and accelerated stability studies. The developed niosomal test gel provided approximately 93.03 ± 0.23% to 101.84 ± 0.11% drug content with yield stresses ranging from 16.12 to 225.54 Pa. The permeated amount of desoximetasone from the niosomal gel after 24 h was 9.75 ± 0.44 µg/cm2 compared to 24.22 ± 4.29 µg/cm2 released from the reference gel tested. Furthermore, a drug retention study compared the test gel to a reference gel, demonstrating that the skin retained 30.88 ng/mg of desoximetasone while the reference product retained 26.01 ng/mg. A controlled drug release profile was obtained with a niosomal formulation containing desoximetasone for use in a topical gel formulation showing promise for potential use to treat skin diseases like psoriasis.

Dextrin-Based Nanohydrogels for Rokitamycin Prolonged Topical Delivery

“…The HPLC analysis of the loaded formulations showed a loading capacity of RK in β-CD PYRO of 8.02 ± 0.51% and 8.50 ± 0.45% for LC PYRO NSs while the encapsulation efficiency calculated was 88.62 ± 1.05% and 89.71 ± 0.86% for β-CD PYRO and LC PYRO NSs, respectively. These values are in accordance with previous drugs complexes such as stilbenes or kynurenic acid for other types of NSs [ 29 , 30 ].…”

“…The presence of cyclodextrin units within the nanogel structure can promote the hydrophobic drug incorporation [ 24 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. β-CD nanosponges (NSs) are chemically crosslinked polymers that have many attractive features for use as hydrogels.…”

Quality by Design Guided Development of Polymeric Nanospheres of Terbinafine Hydrochloride for Topical Treatment of Onychomycosis Using a Nano-Gel Formulation

“…The cumulative release of TBH from the control and nano-gel formulations is plotted against time in Figure 10 a; it can be noted that the cumulative amount of drug released from the two types of gels was similar at the end of the 24-h IVRT study. However, the drug release profiles show that the control gel showed a higher release early on in the study, and started to plateau towards the end; whereas the TBH nano-gel showed a controlled release over time and appeared to gradually build up the drug load in the receptor media, and did not appear to have plateaued at 24 h. The drug release profile from TBH nano-gel was found to obey Higuchi’s square root diffusion model, as shown in Figure 10 b, with a correlation coefficient (r 2 ) of 0.99 [ 80 , 81 ]. The data fitting was based on Equation (6) as described by the Higuchi model: where Q is the amount of drug released in time t , and K H is the Higuchi constant.…”

Gemini and Bicephalous Surfactants: A Review on Their Synthesis, Micelle Formation, and Uses

“…In general, the solubility of non-ionic surfactants in water is not good compared with the solubility of ionic surfactants; however, they do not change the pH of the solution. Usually, these surfactants show a better biocompatibility than ionic ones, making them suitable for biomedical applications [17][18][19][20]. The non-ionic surfactants are also the most used in the food industry [21][22][23].…”