Zaltoprofen Loaded Solid Lipid Nanoparticles for Topical Delivery: Formulation Design, In Vitro and Ex Vivo Evaluation

The number of new pharmaceutical compounds with poor aqueous solubility has grown steadily over the last two decades due to the progress in discovery technologies, e.g. high throughput and combinatorial screening tools, during lead development and optimization phase. Most of these compounds are mainly categorized as bio pharmaceutics classification system (BCS) class II for which their oral absorption is limited by their extremely poor solubility in the gastrointestinal tract [1]. Many potential compounds frequently drop out of pharmaceutical development process because of their insufficient bioavailability. Therefore, the improvement of solubility and dissolution of poorly water-soluble drugs has become vital for formulation researchers [2]. Delivering the drug accurately and safely to its target site at precise time in order to have a controlled release and achieve maximum therapeutic effect remains a benchmark in the design and development of newer drug delivery systems. Nanoparticles aid to provide targeted delivery of many drugs, to sustain the effect of drug in target tissue, to improve oral bioavailability and to increase the stability of therapeutic agents against degradation [3].