14.3

Lipid-Based Carriers for Topical Delivery

14.3.1 Liposomes

Intensive research in the field of lipodermal has emerged from the 1980s, which was

published by Mezei and Gulasekharam, where studies were reported for the effec-

tiveness of liposomes (Mezei and Gulasekharam 1980). But in the 1990s, econazole,

an anti-mycotic agent, was commercialized as lipid vesicles (Cevc 2004). These

lipid vesicles were composed of cholesterol, phospholipid, and aqueous. These

vesicles could be prepared by the application of biodegradable lipids. The hydro-

philic region of lipid when comes in contact with an aqueous medium, and the

lipophilic tails remain in the external medium. Naturally, occurring phosphatidyl-

choline can deliver the payloads by permeation through the skin (Kulkarni et al.

1995). The rigid structure of the skin is disturbed by the fluidic behavior of

phospholipid, leading to an increase in drug partitioning. So, the use of cholesterol

helps to maintain the rigidity and stability of the gel-liquid crystalline phase (Jain

et al. 2015). Techniques such as thin-film hydration, solvent injection techniques,

and reversed-phase evaporation were used to prepare the liposomes. But thin-film

hydration is the most suitable technique for topical delivery (Jain et al. 2017). Some

theories behind the delivery of liposomes into the skin are by either adsorption

mechanism or penetration through the transappendageal route (Hofland et al. 1995).

Drugs such as curcumin, siRNA, clotrimazole, resveratrol, and many more have

been formulated in the form of liposomes for the topical delivery (Chen et al. 2012;

Dorrani et al. 2016; Ning et al. 2005; Isailović et al. 2013).

Table 14.1 Target locations of the skin diseases

Disease

Target locations

References

Melanoma

Dermis or deeper subcutaneous layers

Dewar and Powell (2002)

Dermatitis

Epidermis and papillary dermis

Dainichi et al. (2018)

Keratinocyte

carcinoma

Epidermal

Nehal and Bichakjian

(2018)

Pyoderma

Infiltration of the dermis

Bhat (2012)

Psoriasis

Epidermis and papillary dermis

Dainichi et al. (2018)

Scabies

Lower stratum corneum

Arlian (1989)

Cellulitis

Cutaneous

Rossi and Vergnanini

(2000)

Alopecia areata

Subcutaneous tissue

Wasserman et al. (2007)

Acne vulgaris

Epidermis and stratum corneum

Thiboutot and Del Rosso

(2013)

Pruritus

Epidermis and upper dermis around the basal

membrane

Ikoma et al. (2011)

Urticaria

Superficial portion of the dermis

Cooper (1991)

Asteatotic eczema

Stratum corneum

Brown (2017)

216

R. K. Paul et al.