Niosomes: A Novel Drug Delivery System

Paul Ehrlich, in 1909, initiated the development for targeted delivery when he envisaged a drug delivery mechanism that would target directly to diseased cell. Drug targeting can be defined as the ability to direct a therapeutic agent specifically to desired site of action with little or no interaction with non target tissue 1 . In noisome, the vesicles forming amphiphile is a non-ionic surfactant such as Span-60 which is usually stabilized by addition of cholesterol and small amount of anionic surfactant such as dicetyl phosphate. The first report of non-ionic surfactant vesicles came from the cosmetic applications devised by L’Oreal. The concept of incorporating the drug into noisome for a better targeting of the drug at appropriate tissue destination is widely accepted by researchers and academicians. Various types of drug deliveries can be possible using niosomes like targeting, ophthalmic, topical, parental, etc.