Microneedles as transdermal delivery systems: combination with other enhancing strategies.

Transdermal drug delivery has exhaustively been studied over the past decades due to its multiple advantages over other administration routes; however, drugs that can be administered by this via are few owe to the stratum corneum permeability properties. Recently, several strategies to bypass the upper-layer skin barrier have been developed. One of the latest advances in this area has been the use of micro-scale needles, which painlessly pierce skin, increasing the passage of drugs with unfavourable skin permeability (i.

Optimization of the emulsification and solvent displacement method for the preparation of solid lipid nanoparticles.

Objective: The essential aim of this article is to prepare solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) by emulsification and solvent displacement method and to determine the best process conditions to obtain submicron particles.

Methods: The emulsification and solvent displacement method is a modification of the well-known emulsification-diffusion method, but without dilution of the system. The extraction of the partially water-miscible solvent from the emulsion globules is carried out under reduced pressure, which causes the diffusion of the solvent toward the external phase, with subsequent lipid aggregation in particles whose size will depend on the process conditions.

Transdermal nortriptyline hydrocloride patch formulated within a chitosan matrix intended to be used for smoking cessation.

Objective: The aim of this study was to prepare and characterize both physically and biopharmaceutically, a nortriptyline hydrochloride (NTP-HCl) patch formulated in chitosan.

Methods: 16 g of each chitosan patch formulation (I, II and III, see Table 1 ) was poured onto rectangular glass plates (64 cm²) at a height of 1 mm and dried for 24 h at room temperature. In order to characterize the chitosan patches, polarized microscopy, in vitro skin permeation studies by passive diffusion and iontophoresis and rheological and bioadhesion studies were performed.

Development and characterization of a transdermal patch and an emulgel containing kanamycin intended to be used in the treatment of mycetoma caused by Actinomadura madurae.

Background: Mycetoma is a chronic, degenerative, and incapacitating infection of the skin and subcutaneous tissue.

Aim: This study focuses on developing a kanamycin-based auxiliary system intended to be used in the treatment of mycetoma caused by Actinomadura madurae.

Methods: Transdermal patches (with two different formulations: one with free kanamycin [K] and the other one with kanamycin adsorbed in silica [K-SG]) and an emulgel were developed.

The use of iontophoresis in the administration of nicotine and new non-nicotine drugs through the skin for smoking cessation.

Cigarette smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, reproductive disorders and delayed wound healing all over the world; as such, the goals of smoking cessation are both to reduce health risks and to improve quality of life. The development of novel and more effective medications for smoking cessation is crucial in the treatment of nicotine dependence. Currently, first-line smoking cessation therapies include nicotine replacement products and bupropion.