title: Podophyllotoxin-Loaded Nanostructured Lipid Carriers for Skin Targeting: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies.
abstract: Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) exhibit high skin targeting efficiency and good safety. They are promising vehicles for topical drug delivery. This study aims to increase the skin distribution of podophyllotoxin (POD) by incorporating it into NLCs. Two kinds of POD-loaded NLCs (POD-NLCs)-POD-NLCformulation 1and POD-NLCformulation 2-were prepared and characterized. Their skin targeting efficiencies were compared by conducting in vitro and in vivo experiments. Obviously smaller mean particle size was observed for POD-NLCformulation 1(106 nm) than POD-NLCformulation 2(219 nm), whereas relatively low POD loadings (less than 0.5%) were observed for both POD-NLCformulation 1(0.33%) and POD-NLCformulation 2(0.49%). Significantly higher in vitro and in vivo rat skin deposit amounts of POD (p˂ 0.01) were detected after the topical application of POD-NLCformulation 1compared to POD-NLCformulation 2. To visualize the skin distribution behavior of hydrophobic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) when NLCs were used as carriers, POD was replaced with Nile red (NR-a hydrophobic fluorescent probe), and the distribution behavior of NR-NLCformulation 1and NR-NLCformulation 2in rat skin in vivo was observed using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Higher fluorescent intensity was observed in rat skin after the topical application of NR-NLCformulation 1than NR-NLCformulation 2, suggesting that higher skin targeting efficiency might be obtained when NLCs with smaller mean particle size were used as carriers for hydrophobic APIs. This result was in accordance with those of skin distribution evaluation experiments of POD-NLCs. Skin irritation property of POD-NLCformulation 1was investigated and no irritation was observed in intact or damaged rabbit skin, suggesting it is safe for topical use. Our results validated the safety of NLCs when applied topically. More importantly, mean particle size might be an important parameter for formulation optimization when NLCs are used as carriers for hydrophobic APIs for topical application, considering that their loading is relatively low.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China. zhaojihui07168@163.com.
authors.forename: Jihui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China. piaoxianghua721@126.com.
authors.forename: Xianghua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Piao
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China. xiaoqin_shi87@163.com.
authors.forename: Xiaoqin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China. giantison@163.com.
authors.forename: Aiyong
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Si
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China. analysisdrug@126.com.
authors.forename: Yongtai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China. npfeng@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Nianping
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D000287:Administration, Topical; D000818:Animals; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D004339:Drug Compounding; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D008297:Male; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000737:chemistry; D010316:Particle Size; D011034:Podophyllotoxin / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D011817:Rabbits; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D011034:Podophyllotoxin
keywords: nanostructured lipid carriers; podophyllotoxin; skin targeting efficiency