Mometasone furoate-loaded cold processed oil-in-water emulsions: in vitro and in vivo studies

Prolonged Release Niosomes For Ocular Delivery of Loteprednol: Ocular Distribution Assessment on Dry Eye Disease Induced Rabbit Model

Loteprednol etabonate (LE) is a topical corticosteroid for the symptomatic management of ocular conditions, encompassing both allergic and infectious etiologies. Owing to the dynamic and static barriers of the eye, LE exhibits significantly low bioavailability, necessitating an increase in the frequency of drug administration. The objective of this study is to overcome the limitations by developing niosomal systems loaded with LE. Design of Experiments (DoE) approach was used for the development of optimal niosome formulation. The optimal formulation was characterized using DLS, FT-IR, and DSC analysis. In vitro and ex vivo release studies were performed to demonstrate drug release patterns. After that HET-CAM evaluation was conducted to determine safety profile. Then, in vivo studies were carried out to determine therapeutic activity of niosomes. Zeta potential (ZP), particle size, polydispersity index (PI), and encapsulation efficacy (EE) were -33.8 mV, 89.22 nm, 0.192, and 89.6%, respectively. Medicated niosomes had a broad distribution within rabbit eye tissues and was absorbed by the aqueous humor of the bovine eye for up to 6 h after treatment. Cumulative permeated drug in the bovine eye and rabbit eye were recorded 52.45% and 54.8%, respectively. No irritation or hemorrhagic situation was observed according to the results of HET-CAM study. Thus, novel LE-loaded niosomal formulations could be considered as a promising treatment option for the dry-eye-disease (DED) due to enhanced bioavailability and decreased side effects.

Porous silicon embedded in a thermoresponsive hydrogel for intranasal delivery of lipophilic drugs to treat rhinosinusitis

Intranasal delivery is the most preferred route of drug administration for treatment of a range of nasal conditions including chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), caused by an infection and inflammation of the nasal mucosa. However, localised delivery of lipophilic drugs for persistent nasal inflammation is a challenge especially with traditional topical nasal sprays. In this study, a composite thermoresponsive hydrogel is developed and tuned to obtain desired rheological and physiochemical properties suitable for intranasal administration of lipophilic drugs. The composite is comprised of drug-loaded porous silicon (pSi) particles embedded in a poloxamer 407 (P407) hydrogel matrix. Mometasone Furoate (MF), a lipophilic corticosteroid (log P of 4.11), is used as the drug, which is loaded onto pSi particles at a loading capacity of 28 wt%. The MF-loaded pSi particles (MF@pSi) are incorporated into the P407-based thermoresponsive hydrogel (HG) matrix to form the composite hydrogel (MF@pSi-HG) with a final drug content ranging between 0.1 wt% to 0.5 wt%. Rheomechanical studies indicate that the MF@pSi component exerts a minimal impact on gelation temperature or strength of the hydrogel host. The in-vitro release of the MF payload from MF@pSi-HG shows a pronounced increase in the amount of drug released over 8 h (4.5 to 21-fold) in comparison to controls consisting of pure MF incorporated in hydrogel (MF@HG), indicating an improvement in kinetic solubility of MF upon loading into pSi. Ex-vivo toxicity studies conducted on human nasal mucosal tissue show no adverse effect from exposure to either pure HG or the MF@pSi-HG formulation, even at the highest drug content of 0.5 wt%. Experiments on human nasal mucosal tissue show the MF@pSi-HG formulation deposits a quantity of MF into the tissues within 8 h that is >19 times greater than the MF@HG control (194 ± 7 μg of MF/g of tissue vs. <10 μg of MF/g of tissue, respectively).

Novel Clove Essential Oil Nanoemulgel Tailored by Taguchi's Model and Scaffold-Based Nanofibers: Phytopharmaceuticals with Promising Potential as Cyclooxygenase-2 Inhibitors in External Inflammation

PURPOSE

Clove essential oil is a phytochemical possessing a vast array of biological activities. Nevertheless, fabricating nano topical delivery systems targeted to augment the anti-inflammatory activity of the oil has not been investigated so far. Accordingly, in this study, controlled release nanoparticulate systems, namely nanoemulgel and nanofibers (NFs), of the oil were developed to achieve such goal.

METHODS

The nanoemulsion was incorporated in the hydrogel matrix of mixed biopolymers - chitosan, guar gum and gum acacia - to formulate nanoemulsion-based nanoemulgel. Taguchi's model was adopted to evaluate the effect of independently controlled parameters, namely, the concentration of chitosan (X1), guar gum (X2), and gum acacia (X3) on different dependently measured parameters. Additionally, the nanoemulsion-based NFs were prepared by the electrospinning technique using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer. Extensive in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo evaluations of the aforementioned formulae were conducted.

RESULTS

Both Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) established the complete dispersion of the nanoemulsion in the polymeric matrices of the prepared nanoemulgel and NFs. The ex vivo skin permeation data of clove essential oil from the prepared formulations showed that NFs can sustain its penetration through the skin comparably with nanoemulgel. Topical treatment with NFs (once application) and nanoemulgel (twice application) evoked a marvelous in vivo anti-inflammatory activity against croton oil-induced mouse skin inflammation model when compared with pure clove essential oil along with relatively higher efficacy of medicated NFs than that of medicated nanoemulgel. Such prominent anti-inflammatory activity was affirmed by histopathological and immunohistochemical examinations.

CONCLUSION

These results indicated that nanoemulsion-based nanoemulgel and nanoemulsion-based NFs could be introduced to the phytomedicine field as promising topical delivery systems for effective treatment of inflammatory diseases instead of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs that possess adverse effects.