Diversifying the skin cancer-fighting worthwhile frontiers: How relevant are the itraconazole/ascorbyl palmitate nanovectors?

Abstract

Fighting malignant neoplasms via repurposing existing drugs could be a welcome move for prosperous cancer remediations. In the current work, nanovehiculation and optimization of the repositioned itraconazole (ITZ) utilizing ascorbyl palmitate (AP) aspasomes would be an auspicious approach. Further, the optimized aspasomes were incorporated in a cream and tracked for skin deposition. The in vivo efficacy of aspasomal cream on mice subcutaneous Ehrlich carcinoma model was also assessed. The optimized aspasomes revealed nano size (67.83 ± 6.16 nm), negative charge (-79.40 ± 2.23 mV), > 95% ITZ entrapment and high colloidal stability. AP yielded substantial antioxidant capacity and pushed the ITZ cytotoxicity forward against A431 cells (IC₅₀ = 5.3±0.27 μg/mL). An appealing privilege was the aspasomal cream that corroborated spreadability, contemplated skin permeation and potentiated in vivo anticancer competence, reflected in 62.68% reduction in the tumor weight. Such synergistic tumor probes set the foundation for futuristic clinical translation and commercialization.