Optimization and evaluation of itraconazole-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers incorporated gel for topical drug delivery

: Nanotechnology is a relatively new technology that creates a lot of possibilities for smart drug manufacturing and delivery techniques. Nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) is a significant advantage over the other drug delivery system. NLC-employed gel (Nanogel), which is composed of hydrophilic polymer network -based nanoparticles, ranges from 10 nm to 1000 nm. Because of its great loading capacity, high stability, extended contact period, and thus extended therapeutic impact, nanogel has been used in topical administration. In this work, Itraconazole has been chosen as an API. With the use of Central Composite Design, NLC has been prepared with two variables. They are combined with solid lipid and liquid lipid, and with the aid of a surfactant and are stabilized in aqueous dispersion. The Hot homogenization technique was adopted for the preparation of the same. The mixture was homogenized for 20 minutes at a speed of 2000-8000 RPM which was afterwards sonicated . The formed NLCs were incorporated into hydrogel using Carbopol 934 P as a gel -forming agent. Particle size was measured with the help of the Dynamic light scattering (DLS) method. The results revealed that the particles' were in nano range (54nm - 488nm). Out of 39 optimized combination found through Design of Expert software, the matched prepared formulation (NF 3) was subjected to in vitro drug diffusion study, it was found that drug diffusion from that formulation steadily increased and remained constant after 5 hours. Drug diffusion was almost 89.15% in 7 hours. Following an ex vivo permeation investigation on goat skin of the same , it was seen that the permeation of Itraconazole through goat abdominal skin from the optimized product was around 51.67% in 7 hours.