full issue - Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacy

Current Trends in Biotechnology and PharmacyVol. 5 (1) 972-981 January 2011. ISSN 0973-8916 (Print), 2230-7303 (Online)Ethosomes: A Tool for Transdermal Drug Delivery972Ambekar Abdul Wahid* 1 , Nagaraju Ravouru 2 and Sawant Ramesh Lakshman 11Department of Pharmaceutics, P.D.V.V.P.F’ s College of Pharmacy, Vilad Ghat M.I.D.C,Ahmednagar – 414111 (M.S), India2Department of Pharmaceutics, Institute of Pharm. Technology, Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam (Women’sUniversity) Tirupati, A.P., India* For Correspondence – wahidambekar@gmail.comAbstractSince skin offers an excellent barrier tomolecular transport, as stratum corneum is themost formidable barrier to the passage of most ofthe drugs, except for highly lipophilic, lowmolecular weight drugs. Various attempts havebeen made for enhanced drug delivery into thebody through the intact skin including using lipidvesicles like liposome, niosomes etc. Classicliposomes are of little or no value as carriers fortransdermal drug delivery because they do notdeeply penetrate the skin. One of the majoradvances in vesicle research is the finding thatsome specially designed vesicles possessedproperties that allowed them to successfully deliverdrugs in deeper layer of skin. Ethosome is one ofthe specially designed lipid carrier recentlydeveloped by Touitou et al, showing enhancedskin delivery. Ethosome are characterized byprolong physical stability with respect toliposomes.Key Words: Stratum corneum (SC), Liposome,Niosome, Classic Liposome, Ethosome.IntroductionTransdermal delivery of drugs through theskin to the systemic circulation offers manyadvantages as compared to traditional drugdelivery systems such as increased patientacceptability, avoidance of gastrointestinaldisturbances and first pass metabolism of the drug(1, 2). Although the skin as a route for drugdelivery can offers many advantages, the barriernature of the skin makes it difficult for most drugsto penetrate into and permeate through it (3).During the past decades there has been wideinterest in exploring new techniques to overcomethe stratum corneum barrier (4, 5). Variousphysical and chemical methods has beeninvestigated to overcome stratum corneumbarriers such as iontophoresis, sonophoresis, radiofrequency, electroporation, lipid vesicles likeliposomes, niosomes, transferosomes etc (6,7,8).Drug encapsulated in lipid vesicles preparedfrom phospholipids and nonionic surfactant servesas nontoxic penetration enhancer for drugs dueto its amphiphilic nature. Lipid rich vesicles likeliposome and niosomes can be used forencapsulation hydrophilic and lipophilic as wellas low and high molecular weight drugs (9,10)However these lipid rich vesicles has a problemof poor skin permeability. Introduction ofethosomes, another novel lipid carrier developedby Touitou et al has shown enhanced skinpermeation as compared to conventionalliposomes (2, 11)EthosomesEthosomes were developed by Touitou etal as noninvasive vesicular carriers very similarEthosomes: A Tool for Transdermal Drug Delivery