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ABSTRACT
Introduction
Psoriasis is an auto-immune inflammatory skin disease affecting people worldwide. Its topical therapy via different nanoformulations prevents the long-term side-effects of conventional formulations. Nanocarriers, especially solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs), pose extra benefits in topical drug delivery due to their lipid constituents. Although both natural and synthetic anti-psoriatic drugs have been successfully incorporated in these nanoformulations, yet further studies including dual drug-loadings are being carried out for assessing their efficacy.
Areas covered
This review aims at describing the different aspects of SLNs and NLCs in psoriasis, including their skin permeation behavior and the various drug molecules incorporated. The recent studies with single- and dual drug-loaded SLNs and NLCs have also been discussed in the review.
Expert opinion
SLNs and NLCs have been very effective in mitigating psoriasis when compared to commercial formulations. They have also shown promising results when loaded with two drugs, thus overcoming drawbacks of traditional combination therapy. Therefore, various drug/antibody/siRNA combinations can be selected in the upcoming research works to evaluate their synergistic performance against psoriasis. However, the conclusions drawn so far are only based on the pre-clinical studies and hence further investigations are required to obtain their clinical trial outcomes.
Graphical Abstract
Article highlights
This review contains a detailed information of SLNs and NLCs in the topical therapy of psoriasis from the different drugs used to the research findings available so far.
The various pathways followed by SLNs and NLCs to cross the skin are mentioned in this review.
Up-to-date information on the different natural and synthetic anti-psoriatic drugs encapsulated in SLNs and NLCs are discussed here.
A separate section is dedicated to the investigations carried out with single- and dual drug-loaded SLNs and NLCs for managing psoriasis.
The fruitful outcomes of SLNs and NLCs are only based on preclinical studies. The lack of clinical evidence on safety and efficacy of these formulations limit their market availability.
Abbreviations
| cAMP | = | cyclic adenosine monophosphate |
| CsA | = | cyclosporine |
| ACT | = | calcipotriol |
| FA | = | fluocinolone acetonide |
| HIF-1α | = | hypoxia-inducible factor-1α |
| IL | = | interleukin; NF-AT - nuclear factor of activated T-cells |
| NLCs | = | nanostructured lipid carriers |
| PASI | = | psoriatic area and severity index |
| PDE | = | phosphodiesterase |
| PGE2 | = | prostaglandin E2 |
| PTX | = | pentoxifylline |
| SC | = | stratum corneum |
| siRNA | = | short interfering RNA |
| SLNs | = | solid lipid nanoparticles |
| TNF-α | = | tumor necrosis factor-α |
Acknowledgments
Authors are thankful to NIPER, S.A.S. Nagar for providing the necessary infrastructure and facilities.
Declaration of interest
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
Reviewer disclosures
Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.