Approximately 40% of new chemical entities (NCEs), including anticancer drugs, have been reported as poorly water-soluble compounds. Anticancer drugs are classified into biologic drugs (monoclonal antibodies) and small molecule drugs (nonbiologic anticancer drugs) based on effectiveness and safety profile. Biologic drugs are administered by intravenous (IV) injection due to their large molecular weight, while small molecule drugs are preferentially administered by gastrointestinal route. Even though IV injection is the fastest route of administration and ensures complete bioavailability, this route of administration causes patient inconvenience to visit a hospital for anticancer treatments. In addition, IV administration can cause several side effects such as severe hypersensitivity, myelosuppression, neutropenia, and neurotoxicity. Oral administration is the preferred route for drug delivery due to several advantages such as low cost, pain avoidance, and safety. The main problem of NCEs is a limited aqueous solubility, resulting in poor absorption and low bioavailability. Therefore, improving oral bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs is a great challenge in the development of pharmaceutical dosage forms. Several methods such as solid dispersion, complexation, lipid-based systems, micronization, nanonization, and co-crystals were developed to improve the solubility of hydrophobic drugs. Recently, solid dispersion is one of the most widely used and successful techniques in formulation development. This review mainly discusses classification, methods for preparation of solid dispersions, and use of solid dispersion for improving solubility of poorly soluble anticancer drugs.

Skin as a delivery route for drugs has attracted a great attention in recent decades as it avoids many of the limitations of oral and parenteral administration. However, the excellent barrier property of skin is a major obstacle in the effective transport of drugs through this route. The topmost layer of skin, the “stratum corneum” is the tightest one and is responsible for most of the resistance offered. This necessitates breaching the resistance of the stratum corneum reversibly and transiently in order to achieve a therapeutically meaningful level in systemic circulation or local skin. In last few decades, a number of approaches have been developed to improve the limited drug permeability through stratum corneum. One promising approach is the use of nanoparticulate carriers as they not only facilitate drug delivery across skin but also avoid the drawbacks of conventional skin formulations. This review focuses on nanoparticulate carriers including conventional liposomes, deformable liposomes, ethosomes, niosomes and lipid nanoparticles developed for topical and transdermal drug delivery. A special emphasis is placed on their composition, structure, mechanism of penetration and recent application. The presented data demonstrate the potential of these nanoparticulate carriers for dermal and transdermal delivery.

The aim of this study is to investigate methotrexate-entrapped ultradeformable liposomes (MTX-UDLs) for potential transdermal application. MTX-UDLs were prepared by extrusion method with phosphatidylcholine as a bilayer matrix and sodium cholate or Tween 80 as an edge activator. The physicochemical properties of MTX-UDLs were determined in terms of particle size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, and entrapment efficiency. The deformability of MTX-UDLs was compared with that of methotrexate-entrapped conventional liposomes (MTX-CLs) using a steel pressure filter device. The skin permeation of MTX-UDLs was investigated using Franz diffusion cell, and the skin penetration depth of rhodamine 6G-entrapped UDLs was determined by confocal laser scanning microscopy. MTX-UDLs showed a narrow size distribution, with the particle size of ~100 nm. The deformability of MTX-UDLs was two to five times greater than that of MTX-CLs. The skin permeation of MTX-UDLs was significantly improved compared with MTX-CLs and free MTX solution. The optimized UDLs (phosphatidylcholine: Tween 80 =7:3, w/w) showed a higher fluorescence intensity than conventional liposomes at every increment of skin depth. Thus, the optimized UDLs could be promising nanocarriers for systemic delivery of MTX across skin.