Development of Nitrendipine Nanoliposome for Transdermal Drug Delivery: Preparation, Characterization and Permeation Studies

Context: Nitrendipine is a model drug which is widely used to treat hypertension. It has very low solubility in water so, it has been formulated in various dosage forms to improve the dissolution. Further, it has high first pass metabolism and bioavailability is very less. Objective: The present study gives the preparation and characterization of nitrendipine nanoliposome for controlled delivery. Materials & Methods: The vesicles were made up of phosphatidylcholine, cholesterol and dicetyl phosphate using thin lipid film hydration method for varying lipid ratio. The Nanoliposomes were characterized for size distribution, entrapment efficiency and charge characteristics. In vitro drug release profile and ex-vivo dermal permeation tests were carried out on prepared Nanoliposomes. Results & Discussion: The vesicle size ranges from 211-235 nm with the entrapment efficiencies from 36-59%. Polydispersity indices were from 0.331-0.372 and zeta potential was - 61 to -66 mV. When formulations were compared with carbopol gel, NLG-5 showed controlled drug release patterns. In ex vivo drug permeation, NLG-5 showed maximum drug permeation with flux 0.622 μg/cm2 and distribution parameter 7.177 cm2 /hr. Conclusion: The results indicate that prepared liposome has optimum physical characters and provide adequate drug delivery thereby reducing the wastage of drug.