Abstract

TRANSFEROSOMES: NOVEL APPROACH FOR TRANSDERMAL DRUG DELIVERY

Vivek Dere and Dr. Ganesh Shevalkar*

ABSTRACT

Transdermal administration of drugs is generally limited by the barrier function of the skin. Vesicular systems are one of the most controversial methods for transdermal delivery of active substances. The interest in designing transdermal delivery systems was relaunched after the discovery of elastic vesicles like transferosomes, ethosomes, cubosomes, phytosomes, etc. For a drug to be absorbed and distributed into organs and tissues and eliminated from the body, it must pass through one or more biological membranes/barriers at various locations. Such a movement of drug across the membrane is called as drug transport. They are noninvasive and self-administered delivery systems that can improve patient compliance and provide a controlled release of the therapeutic agents. The greatest challenge of transdermal delivery systems is the barrier function of the skin’s outermost layer. Molecules with molecular weights greater than 500D and ionized compounds generally do not pass through the skin. Therefore, only a limited number of drugs are capable of being administered by this route. Encapsulating the drugs in transferosomes are one of the potential approaches to overcome this problem. They have a bilayered structure that facilitates the encapsulation of lipophilic and hydrophilic, as well as amphiphilic, drug with higher permeation effciencies compared to conventional liposomes. Transferosomes are elastic in nature, which can deform and squeeze themselves as an intact vesicle through narrow pores that are significantly smaller than its size. This review aims to describe the concept of transferosomes, the mechanism of action, different methods of preparation and characterization and factors affecting the properties of transferosomes, along with their recent applications in the transdermal administration of drugs.

Keywords: Transferosomes, nanoencapsulation, transdermal drug delivery, stratum corneum, surfactant, transferosomes, vesicles.