Design and production of Niosome for drug delivery

Introduction: The concept of targeted drug delivery is designed for attempting to concentrate the drug in the tissues of interest while reducing the relative concentration of the medication in the remaining tissues. As a result, drug is localized on the targeted site. Hence, surrounding tissues are not affected by the drug. In addition, loss of drug does not happen due to localization of drug, leading to get maximum efficacy of the medication. Different carriers have been used for targeting of drug, such as Niosomes. These nanocarriers are one of the best among these carriers. Niosomes (non-ionic surfactant vesicles), obtained by hydration, are microscopic lamellar structures formed upon combining non-ionic surfactant with cholesterol. Materials and methods: The preparation method of niosomes in this study involves evaporation to produce a lipid film followed by hydration with the hydration medium. Niosomes were prepared by lipid layer hydration method and compounds, including cholesterol, Span 60, dicetylphosphate and PBS. Lastly, a sonication process to produce unilamellar vesicles was partially optimized based on the particle distribution and the number of vesicles formed with sonication time. Results: Span 20, Span 40 and Span 60/Niosomes were made with mean particle size of 145.4nm. Typical encapsulation efficiencies were in the range of 92.5- 93.51% for all three Span/Niosome systems. The largest vesicles were observed with Span 60 with highest entrapment efficiency as compared to Span 20 and Span 40. Conclusion: The ability of nonionic surfactant to form bilayer vesicles instead of micelles is dependent on the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance values (HLB) of the surfactant, the chemical structure of the components and the critical packing parameter. Above all, Niosome systems have been shown to be more chemically stable, commercially less expensive, and less cumbersome in handling, production and storage than other vesicles. In this study, we observed that with this technique, dosage to treat the diseases can be decreased and deformable niosomes, which are prepared using nonionic surfactants, could be the future potential novel drug delivery system for the development of enhanced transdermal delivery.

کلیدواژه ها:

Niosome ، Non-ionic surfactant ، Cholesterol ، Drug delivery