Synergistic effects of chemical enhancers on skin permeability: a case study of sodium lauroylsarcosinate and sorbitan monolaurate

Permeation enhancers in transdermal drug delivery: benefits and limitations

Introduction: Transdermal drug delivery has several clinical benefits over conventional routes of drug administration. To open the transdermal route for a wider range of drugs, including macromolecules, numerous physical and chemical techniques to overcome the natural low skin permeability have been developed.Areas covered: This review focuses on permeation enhancers (penetration enhancers, percutaneous absorption promoters or accelerants), which are chemicals that increase drug flux through the skin barrier. First, skin components, drug permeation pathways, and drug properties are introduced. Next, we discuss properties of enhancers, their various classifications, structure-activity relationships, mechanisms of action, reversibility and toxicity, biodegradable enhancers, and synergistic enhancer combinations.Expert opinion: Overcoming the remarkable skin barrier properties in an efficient, temporary and safe manner remains a challenge. High permeation-enhancing potency has long been perceived to be associated with toxicity and irritation potential of such compounds, which has limited their further development. In addition, the complexity of enhancer interactions with skin, formulation and drug, along with their vast chemical diversity hampered understanding of their mechanisms of action. The recent development in the field revealed highly potent yet safe enhancers or enhancer combinations, which suggest that enhancer-aided transdermal drug delivery has yet to reach its full potential.

3D bioprinting of skin tissue: From pre-processing to final product evaluation

Bioprinted skin tissue has the potential for aiding drug screening, formulation development, clinical transplantation, chemical and cosmetic testing, as well as basic research. Limitations of conventional skin tissue engineering approaches have driven the development of biomimetic skin equivalent via 3D bioprinting. A key hope for bioprinting skin is the improved tissue authenticity over conventional skin equivalent construction, enabling the precise localization of multiple cell types and appendages within a construct. The printing of skin faces challenges broadly associated with general 3D bioprinting, including the selection of cell types and biomaterials, and additionally requires in vitro culture formats that allow for growth at an air-liquid interface. This paper provides a thorough review of current 3D bioprinting technologies used to engineer human skin constructs and presents the overall pipelines of designing a biomimetic artificial skin via 3D bioprinting from the design phase (i.e. pre-processing phase) through the tissue maturation phase (i.e. post-processing) and into final product evaluation for drug screening, development, and drug delivery applications.

Interaction between a Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug (Ibuprofen) and an Anionic Surfactant (AOT) and Effects of Salt (NaI) and Hydrotrope (4-4-4)

Ibuprofen (IBF), 2-(4-isobutylphenyl) propionic acid, is a surface-active, common nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), and it possesses a high critical micelle concentration (cmc) compared to that of conventional surfactants. The interactions of this common NSAID with an anionic surfactant, sodium octyl sulfosuccinate, were studied by tensiometric, fluorimetric, and calorimetric measurements to investigate this system as a possible model drug-delivery system for an NSAID like IBF, particularly in a high-dose regime for IBF. The interactions between the drug and the surfactant were modeled using a regular solution theory approach in the presence and absence of a model electrolyte (sodium iodide) and a novel nonaromatic, gemini hydrotrope, tetramethylene-1,4-bis( N, N-dimethyl- N-butylammonium)bromide (4-4-4). Both the simple and the hydrotropic electrolyte were shown to have an effect on the solution properties (aggregation parameters, interfacial properties, and thermodynamics of aggregate formation) of the drug-surfactant mixtures and on the interaction between the drug and the surfactant. Surface charges of all self-assembled systems were estimated from ζ-potential measurements, whereas density functional theory calculations showed the interaction energy comparison among all of the binary and ternary combinations. All of these results were interpreted in terms of how altering the subtle balance of hydrophobic and electrostatic forces can significantly improve the ability of these self-assembled systems to transport drug molecules.

Combined use of bile acids and aminoacids to improve permeation properties of acyclovir

The aim of this work was to develop a topical formulation with improved permeation properties of acyclovir. Ursodeoxycholic (UDC) and dehydrocholic (DHC) acids were tested as potential enhancers, alone or in combination with different aminoacids. Equimolar binary and ternary systems of acyclovir with cholic acids and basic, hydrophilic or hydrophobic aminoacids were prepared by co-grinding in a high vibrational micromill. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to characterize the solid state of these systems, while their permeation properties were evaluated in vitro through a lipophilic artificial membrane. UDC was more than 2 times more effective than DHC in improving drug AUC and permeation rate. As for the ternary systems drug-UDC-aminoacid, only the combined use of l-lysine with UDC acid produced an evident synergistic effect in enhancing drug permeation properties, enabling an almost 3 and 8 times AUC increase compared to the binary UDC system or the pure drug, respectively. The best systems were selected for the development of topical cream formulations, adequately characterized and tested for in vitro drug permeation properties and stability on storage. The better performance revealed by acyclovir-UDC-l-lysine was mainly attributed to the formation of a more permeable activated system induced by the multicomponent co-grinding process.

Design and fabrication of human skin by three-dimensional bioprinting

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting, a flexible automated on-demand platform for the free-form fabrication of complex living architectures, is a novel approach for the design and engineering of human organs and tissues. Here, we demonstrate the potential of 3D bioprinting for tissue engineering using human skin as a prototypical example. Keratinocytes and fibroblasts were used as constituent cells to represent the epidermis and dermis, and collagen was used to represent the dermal matrix of the skin. Preliminary studies were conducted to optimize printing parameters for maximum cell viability as well as for the optimization of cell densities in the epidermis and dermis to mimic physiologically relevant attributes of human skin. Printed 3D constructs were cultured in submerged media conditions followed by exposure of the epidermal layer to the air-liquid interface to promote maturation and stratification. Histology and immunofluorescence characterization demonstrated that 3D printed skin tissue was morphologically and biologically representative of in vivo human skin tissue. In comparison with traditional methods for skin engineering, 3D bioprinting offers several advantages in terms of shape- and form retention, flexibility, reproducibility, and high culture throughput. It has a broad range of applications in transdermal and topical formulation discovery, dermal toxicity studies, and in designing autologous grafts for wound healing. The proof-of-concept studies presented here can be further extended for enhancing the complexity of the skin model via the incorporation of secondary and adnexal structures or the inclusion of diseased cells to serve as a model for studying the pathophysiology of skin diseases.

Transcutaneous immunization: an overview of advantages, disease targets, vaccines, and delivery technologies

Skin is an immunologically active tissue composed of specialized cells and agents that capture and process antigens to confer immune protection. Transcutaneous immunization takes advantage of the skin immune network by inducing a protective immune response against topically applied antigens. This mode of vaccination presents a novel and attractive approach for needle-free immunization that is safe, noninvasive, and overcomes many of the limitations associated with needle-based administrations. In this review we will discuss the developments in the field of transcutaneous immunization in the past decade with special emphasis on disease targets and vaccine delivery technologies. We will also briefly discuss the challenges that need to be overcome to translate early laboratory successes in transcutaneous immunization into the development of effective clinical prophylactics.

Effect of surfactant mixtures on skin structure and barrier properties

We investigated the effect of two commonly studied surfactants, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and dodecyl trimethylammonium bromide (C(12)TAB), on skin barrier properties. Using skin conductivity, FT-IR of stratum corneum samples, and penetration of radiolabelled SDS, we determined that addition of C(12)TAB lowers the ability of SDS to perturb skin's barrier properties. Ultrafiltration experiments revealed that addition of C(12)TAB serves to decrease the concentration of monomers and sub-micellar aggregates. None of the measured skin properties including enhancement of skin conductivity, perturbation of lipid structure and skin concentration of SDS correlated with the total SDS concentration in the donor compartment (i.e., the total SDS concentration). However, all these parameters correlated well against the concentration of monomers and sub-micellar aggregates. These findings provide the evidence of the importance of monomer and sub-micellar components in altering skin barrier properties.

Transdermal delivery of haloperidol by proniosomal formulations with non-ionic surfactants

Proniosomal formulations with non-ionic surfactant were studied. The effect of hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of one or two surfactants on drug solubility, proniosome surface structure and stability and skin permeation of haloperidol from different formulations were investigated. Haloperidol (HP) was entrapped in proniosomes with very high efficiency for all formulations. Stability studies performed at 4 degrees C and 25 degrees C for a period of 6 weeks did not reveal any significant drug leakage (p>0.05). Formulations with single surfactants were found to increase the skin permeation of HP more than formulations containing two surfactants. The number of carbons in the alkyl chain of the non-ionic surfactant influenced the in vitro permeation of HP though the epidermis and the skin permeation was increased with increase in hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) value of the surfactant. Interfacial tension and surfactant hydrophobicity appeared to be useful for elucidating mechanism of skin permeation and for comparing drug fluxes from different proniosomal formulations.

Enhancement of transdermal drug delivery via synergistic action of chemicals

Transdermal drug delivery is an attractive alternative to conventional techniques for administration of systemic therapeutics. One challenge in designing transdermal drug delivery systems is to overcome the natural transport barrier of the skin. Chemicals offer tremendous potential in overcoming the skin barrier to enhance transport of drug molecules. Individual chemicals are however limited in their efficacy in disrupting the skin barrier at low concentrations and usually cause skin irritation at high concentrations. Multicomponent mixtures of chemicals, however, have been shown to provide high skin permeabilization potency as compared to individual chemicals without necessarily causing irritation. Here we review systems employing synergistic mixtures of chemicals that offer superior skin permeation enhancement. These synergistic systems include solvent mixtures, microemulsions, eutectic mixtures, complex self-assembled vesicles and inclusion complexes. Methods for design and discovery of such synergistic systems are also discussed.

High-throughput spectroscopic imaging applied to permeation through the skin

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy has been successfully applied to study the permeation of substances through human skin in a high-throughput manner. The sample of skin was placed on the measuring surface of an attenuated total reflection (ATR) crystal and was divided into several areas. These areas were separated using a specially designed grid created on the surface of the skin and each area was subjected to a different combination of permeant and enhancer. ATR Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) imaging was applied to measure the permeation of 12 liquid samples through a piece of skin smaller than 5 cm(2). This work demonstrated that, using the ATR-FT-IR imaging method, it is possible to measure and directly compare the transdermal processes of several permeants under identical conditions.