Highly deformable and highly fluid vesicles as potential drug delivery systems: theoretical and practical considerations

Vesicles that are specifically designed to overcome the stratum corneum barrier in intact skin provide an efficient transdermal (systemic or local) drug delivery system. They can be classified into two main groups according to the mechanisms underlying their skin interaction. The first group comprises those possessing highly deformable bilayers, achieved by incorporating edge activators to the bilayers or by mixing with certain hydrophilic solutes. The vesicles of this group act as drug carriers that penetrate across hydrophilic pathways of the intact skin. The second group comprises those possessing highly fluid bilayers, owing to the presence of permeation enhancers. The vesicles of this group can act as carriers of drugs that permeate the skin after the barrier of the stratum corneum is altered because of synergistic action with the permeation enhancers contained in the vesicle structure. We have included a detailed overview of the different mechanisms of skin interaction and discussed the most promising preclinical applications of the last five years of Transfersomes® (IDEA AG, Munich, Germany), ethosomes, and invasomes as carriers of antitumoral and anti-inflammatory drugs applied by the topical route.