Abstract

AN UPDATED REVIEW ON TRANSETHOSOMES

A. Sravani*, Shyamala and JVC Sharma

Abstract

Transdermal route of drug delivery has gained great interest in pharmaceutical research as it overcomes many problems associated with the oral route of administration. The development of vesicular formulations has generated some promising solutions to the problems associated with drug delivery not only related to drugs but also those of barriers like skin. Conventional lipid based vesicular systems like liposomes show inability to cross intercellular channels of stratum corneum. To overcome this drawback of conventional lipidic systems, ethanol based vesicular carriers were developed by pharmaceutical scientists. Transethosomes come under the category of ethanol based lipidic carriers. Transethosomes are composed of phospholipid, ethanol and water, with edge activators (like span 60) or permeation enhancers (like oleic acid). Ethanol based vesicular systems represent non-invasive carriers which enable the drug to reach in deeper epidermal layers or systemic circulation. The nature, methods of preparation, and evaluation parameters of transethosomes were discussed in this review along with their applications, problematic issues and future progress.

Keywords: Transethosomes, Transdermal delivery system, ethanol based lipidic carriers.