Formulation challenges for 21st century topical and transdermal delivery systems

Figures & data

Figure 1. Physical techniques (a) iontophoresis: delivery of drugs containing ionizable groups, (b) electroporation: disruption of multilamellar lipid layer and permeabilization of skin followed by internalization of drug after treatment, (c) laser microporation: formation of micropores followed by passive diffusion from a patch to the deeper skin layers, (d) microneedle: insertion of drug coated microneedles into the skin, (e) sonophoresis, disruption of stratum corneum by microbubble assisted acoustic cavitation (skin layer thicknesses not drawn to scale).

Figure 2. Putative drug delivery mechanisms of nano-sized systems. Adapted with permission from [10].

Roberts MS, Mohammed Y, Pastore MN, et al. Topical and cutaneous delivery using nanosystems. J Control Release. 2017;247:86–105.

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