Nanocarriers as a tool for the dermal delivery of an antifungal agent

Abstract

Nano-carriers are promising drug carrier systems being developed to deliver the drugs to the target organ. These systems have proven a great success in the treatment of several diseases. Many drug carrier systems have been prepared and successfully utilized in the treatment of skin fungal infections, among which are liposomes, niosomes, transferosomes, ethosomes, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). Lipid nanocapsules (LNCs) are lipid nanoparticles with a structure that is a hybrid between polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes. Till current date, only one paper was published on the use of LNCs in treatment of skin fungal infections. Luliconazole is a novel broad spectrum antifungal drug used topically for fungal infections such as Tinea and Onychomycosis. Therefore, the aim of this work was to study the possibilities for using essential oils having antifungal activity (Eucalyptus oil and orange oil) for LNCs preparation instead of using medium chain triglyceride (Miglyol®812) and incorporation of luliconazole in those LNCs in an attempt to modulate its therapeutic efficacy in diseases such as tinea pedis.