Pharmaceutica Analytica Acta

Proniosomes gel containing Acyclovir as potential carrier for enhanced dermal permeation

5^th International Conference and Exhibition on Pharmaceutics & Novel Drug Delivery Systems

March 16-18, 2015 Crowne Plaza, Dubai, UAE

Shery Jacob1, Anroop Nair2 and Arun Shirwaikar1

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Pharm Anal Acta

Abstract:

Proniosomes propose a multifaceted vesicle delivery system with potential transfer of drugs via topical route. The primary objective of the current research was to develop proniosome gel containing acyclovir for skin delivery. Various formulations were prepared by coacervation techniques with various combinations of non-ionic surface active agents, phospholipids and cholesterol. A 32 factorial design was designed to investigate the effect of Spans to Tweens (X1) ratios and cholesterol to lecithin (X2) ratios on the dependent variables like vesicle size (Y1), entrapment efficiency (Y2) and drug accumulation in the stratum corneum (Y3). The optimized proniosome formulations were evaluated for entrapment efficiency, surface morphology, drug release, in vitro permeation, skin deposition, skin sensitivity and stability studies. In vitro drug release from the optimized formulation was found to be 2.89%, in vitro drug permeation on rabbit skin showed 8.72 μg/cm2/hr and percentage drug accumulation in the stratum corneum was 83.43% after 24 hr. The optimized formulation was stable for three month at controlled room temperature (250C and 75% RH). In vitro permeation studies confirmed that the proniosome formulation had accumulated in upper epidermal layers more than conventional acyclovir gel. Based on the promising outcomes, the present investigation concludes that the proniosomes could be a most feasible vesicular delivery system for the effective topical transport of acyclovir.