Formulation development and evaluation of nanocarrier based topical drug delivery system for treatment of skin cancer

Abstract

newlineSkin cancer is the unrestrained growth of abnormal skin cells. It mainly occurs due to unrepaired deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage to skin cells that triggers mutations, or genetic defects, that leads to the skin cells to multiply rapidly and form malignant tumors. Most of the skin cancer occurs due to exposure of the sun this may be considered as long term exposure, or short periods of intense sun exposure and burning. The objective of the present research work was to formulate, develop and evaluate nanocarrier based topical drug delivery system for the treatment of skin cancer. 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) was selected as the chemotherapeutic drug. Drug loaded single layered nanofibers (S-NFs), multilayered nanofibers (M-NFs) and nanoparticle loaded M-NFs for the treatment of skin cancer have been developed using electrospinning process. The prepared formulations were designed and formulated using factorial design. Detailed characterization studies were performed for all these formulations and comparatively in-vitro drug diffusion studies have also being performed. Cell-cytotoxicity and in-vivo studies were performed using A375 cell line and SCID micerespectively. In-vitro drug diffusion study data of 5-FU loaded PLGA NPs into M-NFs showed controlled release upto 7 days. Further in-vivo efficacy was achieved using 5-FU loaded PLGA NPs into M-NFs. From the results it was observed that the growth of skin cancertumors has been gradually reduced and providespotent means for the treatment of skin cancer. Hence, the developed formulations could be considered as promising drug delivery approach for the effective treatment of skin cancer. newline newline newline