Abstract

TRANSFEROSOMES: A NOVEL CARRIER FOR ENHANCED DERMAL DELIVERY OF DRUG

Dr. Ranju Pal* and Dr. Manoj Pandey

ABSTRACT

The transdermal route of drug delivery has gained great interest of pharmaceutical research, as it circumvents number of problems associated with oral route of drug administration. The major barrier in transdermal delivery of drug is the skin intrinsic barrier, the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of the skin that offers the principal barrier for diffusion of drug. Recently, various strategies have been used to improve the transdermal delivery of drug. Mainly, they include iontophoresis, electrophoresis, sonophoresis, chemical permeation enhancers, microneedles, and vesicular system (liposomes, niosomes, elastic liposomes such as ethosomes and transferosomes). Among these strategies transferosomes appear promising candidate. Transfersomes are a form of elastic or deformable vesicle, which were first introduced in the early 1990s. Elasticity is generated by incorporation of an edge activator in the lipid bilayer structure. The original composition of these vesicles was soya phosphatidyl choline incorporating sodium cholate and a small concentration of ethanol. Transfersomes are applied in a non-occluded method to the skin and have been shown to permeate through the stratum corneum lipid lamellar regions as a result of the hydration or osmotic force in the skin. They have been used as drug carriers for a range of small molecules, peptides, proteins and vaccines, both in vitro and in vivo. Transfersomes penetrate through the stratum corneum and the underlying viable skin into the blood circulation. This review highlights the various aspects of the transferosomes in the effective delivery of drug.

Keywords: Transdermal delivery, Stratum corneum, Osmotic force, Transferosomes, Permeation enhancers.