TRANSFERSOMES: A NOVEL TECHNIQUE FOR TRANSDERMAL DRUG DELIVERY

With oral and parenteral drug delivery systems, poo r patient compliance is a frequent problem observed in daily clinical practice. Transport of drug across the skin is best route of drug delivery, because the skin is larges t human organ with total weight 3 kg and a surface of 1.5 -2.0 m 2 . But the big hurdle in transdermal delivery of dr ug is the skin, the stratum corneum, the outermost envelop of the skin. Recentl y, various strategies have been used to augment to the transdermal delivery. Mainly, they include iontophoresis, elect rophoresis, sonophoresis, chemical permeation enhancers, micro needles, and vesicular system (liposomes, niosomes, elastic liposomes such as ethosomes and transferso mes). Transfersomes possess an infrastructure consists of hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties together and as a result can accommodate drug molecules with wide range of solubility. By using the concept of rational membrane de sign we have recently devised special composite bodies, they are called transfersomes. Transfersomes can deform and pass through narrow constriction (from 5 to 10 times less than t heir own diameter) without measurable loss. Transfe rsomes penetrate through the pores of stratum corneum which are smaller than its size and get into the underlying viabl e skin in intact form due to its deformable nature. The system can b e characterized by in vitro for vesicle shape and size, entrapment efficiency, degree of deformability, number of vesi cles per cubic mm. This high deformability gives be tter penetration of intact vesicles. They can act as a carrier for l ow as well as high molecular weight drugs e.g. anal gesic, anesthetic, corticosteroids, sex hormones, anticancer, insulin, gap junction protein, and albumin. The present rev iew highlights the formulation aspects, characterization, and therapeu tic applications of transfersomes.