Vesicular Ocular Drug Delivery System: Preclinical and Clinical Perspective of Drugs Delivered via Niosomes

An eye is the most precious and easily accessible organ of the body. It possesses easy route to local drug delivery and is a way to non-invasive clinical treatment of ocular diseases. Ocular delivery in spite of possessing various advantages has the limitation of poor bioavailability and low permeability across the cornea thus, limiting the efficacy of drugs. Therefore, various carrier systems have been developed to overcome these limitations. Most recently, niosomes have been developed as efficient vesicular carrier for ophthalmic drug delivery. Large numbers of drugs of various therapeutic categories have been incorporated in these vesicles. These systems exhibited enhanced permeability required for the treatment of ocular diseases, initiating a new era in vesicular research for ocular delivery. Various reports show promising future of niosomes for topical, transdermal, ocular delivery of various therapeutically active agents more effectively and providing better in vivo data thus suggesting the need of the clinical testing of these carriers for their widespread utility. So, to evaluate its safety and efficacy, various preclinical and clinical studies were conducted. The present review focuses on the preclinical and clinical perspective of delivery of various drugs through niosomal vesicular carriers illustrating enhanced safety and efficacy by designing these carriers.