Transethosomes: A Comprehensive Review of Ultra-Deformable Vesicular Systems for Enhanced Transdermal Drug Delivery

Abstract

The transdermal route is one of the effective routes for delivering drugs. It also overcomes many limitations associated with oral delivery. One of the limitations of this route is the drug’s poor skin permeability—stratum corneum, the skin’s outermost layer that also acts as a barrier for the drug to penetrate. Traditional liposomal formulation is utilized to overcome these limitations. However, these liposomes also have certain difficulty in delivering drugs across the barriers. Ultra-deformable vesicles are novel vesicular structures that are flexible and stable, they can easily bypass the skin barriers more efficiently and thus enhance bioavailability. These vesicles consist of ethosomes, transethosomes, and transferosomes. Transethosomes are more advanced than other vesicular systems because they contain ethanol, phospholipids, and edge activators, making them more deformable and easier to penetrate deeper skin membranes. These vesicular systems can be prepared by various methods, such as cold, hot, and thin film hydration. Characterization of transethosomes includes vesicular size, zeta potential, polydispersity index and encapsulation efficiency, stability, and drug release studies. These vesicular systems can be utilized to deliver a variety of medications transdermally, including analgesics, antibiotics, and arthritis medications. Despite their promising potential, ethanol-based formulations present several problems requiring additional study. This review aims to describe various vesicular structures that have been used to overcome the barrier for the transdermal delivery of drugs and also describe brief composition, method of preparation, characterization, mechanism of penetration of transethosomes, as well as highlighted various applications of transethosomes in medicine, clinical trials and patents.