What are niosomes used for?

Niosomes (the nonionic surfactant vesicles), considered as novel drug delivery systems, can improve the solubility and stability of natural pharmaceutical molecules. They are established to provide targeting and controlled release of natural pharmaceutical compounds.

What are liposomes and niosomes?

non-ionic surfactants are called niosomes, while vesicles (mainly) composed of phospholipids are indicated as liposomes.

What is the structure of niosomes?

Niosomes are spherical and consist of microscopic lamellar (unilamellar or multilamellar) structures ( Figure 1 ). The bilayer is formed by nonionic surfactants, with or without cholesterol and a charge inducer [20, 21].

How do you make niosomes?

Niosomes can be prepared by hydration of the surfactant to obtain a colloidal dispersion that entraps the desired compound. The compound that remains in the hydrating solution is separated from the vesicles by gel chromatography (e.g. Sephadex G50), centrifugation or dialysis (Uchegbu and Vyas, 1998).

What are resealed erythrocytes?

Resealed Erythrocytes are biocompatible, biodegradable, possess long circulation half-life and can be loaded with variety of active drug substances. Carrier erythrocytes are prepared by collecting blood sample from the organism of interest and separating erythrocytes from plasma.

Why are nanoparticles good for drug delivery?

Due to their small size and large surface area, drug nanoparticles show increase solubility and thus enhanced bioavailability, additional ability to cross the blood brain barrier (BBB), enter the pulmonary system and be absorbed through the tight junctions of endothelial cells of the skin (Kohane, 2007).

Why are Lipoosomes better than niosomes?

Niosomes possess a longer shelf life than liposomes [60]. They prolong the circulation of encapsulated drugs and increase metabolic stability in an emulsified form, whereas liposomes have limited shelf life because of the rancidification of their lipid components [53,60,61].

What is the size of niosomes?

Based on the vesicle size, niosomes can be divided into three groups. These are small unilamellar vesicles (SUV, size=0.025-0.05 μm), multilamellar vesicles (MLV, size=>0.05 μm), and large unilamellar vesicles (LUV, size=>0.10 μm).

Why are niosomes more stable than liposomes?

Compared with liposomes, niosomes have advantages such as good stability, low cost, easy to be formulated and scaling-up. Niosomes are much more stable because their forming materials, non-ionic surfactants, are more stable than those of lipids both in terms of physical and chemical stability.

Which method is employed for drug entrapment in erythrocytes?

Electro-encapsulation method: It is also known as electroporation method, which is based on using transient electrolysis leading to generate pores that produce desirable membrane permeability for drug loading into erythrocytes.

What is bioadhesive drug delivery?

Bioadhesive systems provide intimate contact between a dosage form and the absorbing tissue, which may result in high concentration in a local area and hence high drug flux through the absorbing tissue.