Abstract

IONTOPHORESIS:- A NEWER APPROACH IN TRANSDERMAL DRUG DELIVERY

Bhandari Neeraj* and Thakur Sajal

ABSTRACT

Sonophoresis is defined as the application of ultrasound to the skin resulting in enhanced transdermal transport of molecules. Low frequency sonophoresis or ultrasound is defined as sonophoresis or ultrasound at a frequency that is less than 2.5 MHz, more typically less than 1MHz, more preferably in the range of 20 to 100 kHz. The transdermal delivery of biologics—as well as of conventional drugs—is growing in popularity because the technique offers numerous advantages. It reduces pain, bio hazardous waste, and risk of infection. Most importantly, needle-free drug delivery generally increases patient compliance. The present paper highlights the recent advancements in the field of sonophoresis, its mechanism and applications. Transdermal drug delivery (TDD) has several significant advantages compared to oral drug delivery, including elimination of pain and sustained drug release. However, the use of TDD is limited by low skin permeability due to the stratum corneum (SC), the outermost layer of the skin. Sonophoresis is a technique that temporarily increases skin permeability such that various medications can be delivered noninvasively. For the past several decades, various studies of sonophoresis in TDD have been performed focusing on parameter optimization, delivery mechanism, transport pathway, or delivery of several drug categories including hydrophilic and high molecular weight compounds. Based on these various studies, several possible mechanisms of sonophoresis have been suggested. For example, cavitation is believed to be the predominant mechanism responsible for drug delivery in sonophoresis. This review presents details of various studies on sonophoresis including the latest trends, delivery of various therapeutic drugs, sonophoresis pathways and mechanisms, and outlook of future studies.

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