Transdermal drug delivery Flashcards
What are the advantages and disadvantages of transdermal drug delivery
Advantages:
-Avoids hepatic first pass metabolism – !Skin Metabolism!
-Avoids pain associated with injections
- Continuous “Sustained Release” drug delivery with infrequent dosing
- Permits self-administration – Vaccines
- Non-invasive (no needles or injections) – Needle injuries /contamination
- Improves patient compliance
- Reduces side effects
- Allows removal of drug source
Patient preferred
Disadvantages
- Potent drugs only (few mg/24 hours)
- Lag Time (not good for acute conditions)
- Development of tolerance
- Poor diffusion of large molecules
- Allergic and Irritant reactions
What are the routes of transdermal drug absorption
Transcellular:
>Water soluble
> 25m diffusion path lenght
>Delivered through lipid structure of SC and corneocytes
Intercellular:
>Lipid-soluble drugs
>0.70% of relative surface are 350 m diffusion path length
>Drug diffuses through endogenous lipid within SC
Trans follicular:
>Via the pores
>0.10% of relative surface are 200 m diffusion path length
What are the formulation principles
Select a suitable drug
Release the drug
>Vehicle should not retain drug
>Appropriate release
>If lipophilic drug in lipophilic base then drug will stay in formulation, aqueous base more suitable
Use thermodynamics
> concentration gradient in favour of the drug -Near saturated solution
>
Alcohol can help
>Partitions into skin and provides transient reservoir for the drug
>Good solvent but evaporates from skin
Occlusion
>cover skin by blocking trans epidermal water loss
Fundamentals of skin permeation
passive diffusion process that can be described by the Fick’s law of diffusion (conc gradient)
What is fick’s first law
J = { DP / h} Cv = kp Cv
J = flux
D = apparent diffusivity in stratum corneum
P = SC / formulation partition coefficient
h = thickness of the barrier
Cv = Concentration in vehicle (donor solution)
kp = Drug’s permeability coefficient across the skin
(is formulation dependant)
What is lag time
The time period that is required to reach therapeutic level
LT=h2/ 6D
What is a steady state flux
It determines whether therapeutic levels can be reached
Examples of transdermal drugs
Buprenorphine
Fentanyl
Nicotine
Ethinyl
What are the general formulation options for transdermal formulation
general
>Semi-solid formulation: Increase residence time
> Patch: extend drug delivery through skin
> Liquid formation: Rapid short term input to permeate the skin
Skin type >Normal to oily: gels >Normal to dry: lotions >dry skin: creams >Skin site -Hairy: lotions, gels, and sprays
What are the clinical rationales that dictate topical choice and what are those choices ?
Wet, vesicular or weeping lesions: Aqueous base formulations
- Hydrophilic drugs: include water and a co-solvent but avoid alcohols - Hydrophobic drug: Mineral oil or aqueous co-solvent but avoid alcohol
Dry, thickened scaly lesions: fatty formulations such as ointments or pastes
-Oil and waxes which include surfactants and glycol depending on formulation and drug solubility
For delivery to the skin what are the formulation options
Aqueous or oil based: isopropyl myristate, propylene glycol
For delivery through the skin what are the formulation options
Aqueous or oil based formulation: alcohols, glycols, oleic acid (can be a combination)
Combination of solvents
Alcohol may enhance delivery
How can transdermal drug delivery be enhanced
increase flux
>Skin barrier properties: increase diffusivity
>Nature of permeant to increase partition
> increase conc. of the drug in the vehicle/ formulation
>Select thin skin to put the patch on
When is maximum flu achieved
At saturation
what does it mean to be super saturation
Supersaturated solution is where drug is present in excess of solubility
How can a formulation be manipulated to enhance it’s uptake
-Partitioning can be encouraged into the SC by using a vehicle in which drug is only moderately soluble
- Active should have appropriate physicochemical properties
>Enhances partitioning in lipophilic SC
>Ester-linked fatty acids can help and link can be cleaved in skin by esterases liberating the active
-Control over pH can ensure that neutral compounds are maintained that permeate better
>Ion-pairing agents can also assist
What is an adhesive patch
- It is one layer of drug contained in an adhesive polymer
- Has a reservoir of high loading capacity
- Degree of control is small and the ultimate control barrier is the stratum corneum
What are layered patches and how do they work
- They have a different polymer composition/different polymer to provide drug containing matrix
- Made of one or more sub-layers
- can increase drug content in the system or control drug release for longer delivery
-Main drawback is the area of contact between patch and skin is larger than the active area