Phytoconsitutents As Bioenhancers: A Review

Bio-enhancers are the compounds that enhance the bioavailability of active pharmaceutical ingredients without itself having any pharmacological action. Most of them are of natural origin and do not have any side effects. They enhance the bioavailability by influencing variety of mechanisms involved in the drug action like penetration enhancement, improving metabolism, enzyme inhibition, drug targeting etc. Use of these compounds help to reduce the dose frequency which in turn reduces drug retention in turn causing the toxicity and it also helps in developing cost-effective products. Present days these are widely used to enhance the bioavailability of anti-bacterial, anti-viral, antibiotic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, cardiovascular drugs etc and effective drug targeting. The present review is designed to emphasize the importance of certain phytoconstituents working as bio-enhancers, their classification and different mechanisms of their activity.

Drug Penetration Enhancement Techniques in Transdermal Drug Delivery System: A Review

Transdermal Drug Delivery System (TDDS) is described as a self-contained or discrete dosage form that is applied to the intact skin. This rout of drug administration of drugs through the skin for therapeutic use is an alternative approach to oral, intravascular, subcutaneous, and transmucosal routes. The delivery of drugs through the skin to the systemic circulation provides a convenient route of administration for a variety of clinical indications. Transdermal Drug Delivery System allows continuous drug administration, use of drugs with short biological half lives, avoids increases hepatic first pass elimination and rapid termination of medication by removing the transdermal drug delivery system from the skin. Various transdermal technologies may be applied for different categories of pharmaceuticals used for the treatment of disorders of the skin or for systemic effects to treat diseases of other organs. Several transdermal products and applications include hormone replacement therapy, contraception, pain management, angina pectoris, smoking cessation, and neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. The most commonly used transdermal system is the skin patch using various types of technologies. Stratum corneum is the outermost layer of the skin and it is the main barrier layer for permeation of drug in transdermal delivery of drugs. So, to circumvent the barrier properties of stratum corneum and to increase the flux of drug through skin membrane various penetration enhancement techniques are used in transdermal drug delivery system. The review presents different physical and chemical methods in penetration enhancement approaches and to optimize the transdermal delivery system.

Sustained acoustic medicine; sonophoresis for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug delivery in arthritis

Background: Arthritis pain is primarily managed by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as diclofenac. Topical diclofenac gel is limited in efficacy due to its limited penetration through the skin. This study investigates the use of a multihour, wearable, localized, sonophoresis transdermal drug delivery device for the penetration enhancement of diclofenac through the skin. Materials & methods: A commercially available, sustained acoustic medicine (sam®) ultrasound device providing 4 h, 1.3 W, 132 mW/cm2, 3 MHz ultrasound treatment was evaluated for increasing the drug delivery of diclofenac gel through a human skin model and was compared with standard of care topical control diclofenac gel. Results: Sonophoresis of the diclofenac gel for 4 h increases diclofenac delivery by 3.8× (p < 0.01), and penetration by 32% (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Sustained acoustic medicine can be used as a transdermal drug-delivery device for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.