Premium
Ceramide cross‐linking leads to pore formation: Potential mechanism behind CAP enhancement of transdermal drug delivery
Author(s) -
Paal Jonas,
Fridman Gregory,
Bogaerts Annemie
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
plasma processes and polymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1612-8869
pISSN - 1612-8850
DOI - 10.1002/ppap.201900122
Subject(s) - transdermal , ceramide , drug delivery , mechanism (biology) , permeation , nanopore , biophysics , drug , permeability (electromagnetism) , molecular dynamics , chemistry , nanotechnology , materials science , membrane , pharmacology , computational chemistry , biochemistry , medicine , apoptosis , philosophy , epistemology , biology
In recent years, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has been proposed as a novel method to enhance transdermal drug delivery, while avoiding tissue damage. However, the underlying mechanism for the increasing skin permeability upon CAP treatment is still undefined. We propose a mechanism in which CAP‐generated reactive species induce cross‐linking of skin lipids, leading to the generation of nanopores, thereby facilitating the permeation of drug molecules. Molecular dynamics simulations support this proposed mechanism. Furthermore, our results indicate that to achieve maximum enhancement of the permeability, the optimal treatment will depend on the exact lipid composition of the skin, as well as on the CAP source used.