Skin delivery is an exciting and challenging field. It is a promising approach for effective drug delivery due to its ease of administration, ease of handling, high flexibility, controlled release, prolonged therapeutic effect, adaptability, and many other advantages. The main associated challenge, however, is low skin permeability. The skin is a healthy barrier that serves as the body’s primary defence mechanism against foreign particles. New advances in skin delivery (both topical and transdermal) depend on overcoming the challenges associated with drug molecule permeation and skin irritation. These limitations can be overcome by employing new approaches such as lipid nanosystems. Due to their advantages (such as easy scaling, low cost, and remarkable stability) these systems have attracted interest from the scientific community. However, for a successful formulation, several factors including particle size, surface charge, components, etc. have to be understood and controlled. This review provided a brief overview of the structure of the skin as well as the different pathways of nanoparticle penetration. In addition, the main factors influencing the penetration of nanoparticles have been highlighted. Applications of lipid nanosystems for dermal and transdermal delivery, as well as regulatory aspects, were critically discussed.

Tissue engineering and cell therapy are very attractive in terms of potential applications but remain quite challenging regarding the clinical aspects. Amongst the different strategies proposed to facilitate their implementation in clinical practices, biodegradable microparticles have shown promising outcomes with several advantages and potentialities. This critical review aims to establish a survey of the most relevant materials and processing techniques to prepare these micro vehicles. Special attention will be paid to their main potential applications, considering the regulatory constraints and the relative easiness to implement their production at an industrial level to better evaluate their application in clinical practices.

: The access to afford safe, effective, and genuine medications is a major challenge for people in low- to middle-income countries. This study aimed at developing and validating simple, accurate, and inexpensive analytical liquid chromatography and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometric methods to ensure quality control of antibiotics sold in formal and informal pharmaceutical markets. It focused on four antibiotics (azithromycin [AZT], cefadroxil [CFD], cefixime [CFX], and erythromycin [ERH]) used to treat infectious diseases in the region of Haut-Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The total error strategy (accuracy profile) matching with the validation requirements of International Council on Harmonization was used for the validation. The validation results showed that three analytical methods of AZT, CFD, and ERH were validated according to the accuracy profile obtained, whereas the proposed method of CFX was not validated. Therefore, the United State Pharmacopoeia method permitted to quantify CFX samples. The dosage intervals ranged from 25 to 75 µg/mL for CFD, from 750 to 1,500 µg/mL for AZT, and from 500 to 750 µg/mL for ERH. The application of the validated method to samples collected (N = 95) allowed the detection of 25% substandard antibiotics with a rate of poor quality much higher in the informal circuit compared with the formal one (54% versus 11%; P < 0.05). The routine application of these methods will strengthen the quality control of drugs marketed in DRC. This study gives evidence for the availability of poor-quality antibiotics in the country, requiring the immediate attention of the national medicine regulatory authority.

Acknowledgments were not included in the original publication