Design of antioxidant ultradeformable liposomes based on blueberry extracts

JORGE MONTANARI; MARÍA E. VERA; MARIA J MORILLA; EDER L ROMERO

Estambul

Congreso; 8th World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology; 2012

PBP World Meeting, Association de Pharmacie Galénique Industrielle (APGI) y Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Pharmazeutische Verfahrenstechnik (APV)

Ultradeformable liposomes (UL) are nanocarriers specially designed to improve the transcutaneous delivery of active principles. This unique ability relies on their lower elastic modulus in comparison to conventional liposomes (Cevc et al., 1992), which allows the UL to be capable of penetrate through the stratum corneum (SC) driven by the transepitelial humidity gradient (Cevc et al., 2003), instead of aggregate or coalesce on the skin surface like conventional liposomes do (Verma et al., 2003). Because of this, once applied onto the skin, UL could be a powerful tool for the controlled/targeted delivery of cosmetic and/or skin-therapeutic actives, instead of the current uses of liposomes as surface depots for external sustained release. We previously proved that the matrix of UL could reach the deeper layers of the SC and the hydrophilic content loaded into UL could be found up to a depth of 24 μm in the viable epidermis, 1 hour after topical application on human skin (Montanari et al., 2010). On the other hand, due to their high content of polyphenols and anthocyanins, blueberries are natural sources for antioxidants(Burdulis et al., 2009). Their use as protectors against degradative processes mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been extensively studied (Prior et al., 1998). The aim of this work is to design a nano-delivery system that allows the antioxidant actives from blueberry to reach the deep skin layers to exert their protective action on the extracellular matrix, a target for free radical damage (Bernerd, 2005).