Drug development and industrial pharmacy
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The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of liquid-to-solid lipid ratio on properties of flurbiprofen-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs), and to clarify the superiority of NLCs over SLNs for transdermal administration. Particle size, zeta potential, drug encapsulation efficiency, in vitro occlusion factor, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffractometry, in vitro percutaneous permeation profile, and stability of SLNs and NLCs were compared. Particle size, zeta potential, drug encapsulation efficiency, in vitro occlusion factor, and in vitro percutaneous permeation amount of the developed NLCs were all <200 nm, < -20 mV, >78%, >35, and >240 μg/cm(2), respectively, however, for SLNs were 280 nm, -29.11 mV, 63.2%, 32.54, and 225.9 μg/cm(2), respectively. ⋯ And DSC and XRD studies indicated that not only the crystalline peaks of the encapsulated flurbiprofen disappeared but also obvious difference between samples and bulk Compritol® ATO 888 was seen. It could be concluded that liquid-to-solid lipid ratio has significant impact on the properties of SLNs and NLCs, and NLCs showed better stability than SLNs. Therefore, NLCs might be a better option than SLNs for transdermal administration.