Potential advancements of nanocarriers in topical drug delivery: a mini review

The topical route offers many attractive alternatives for the drug delivery as compared to oral administration and injection. Besides, skin provides a reservoir that delivers drug delivery for days. Nanotechnology, science at nano scale, has been emerged as a strong and potential discipline focusing on atom and molecular mechanisms that contributes to a diversity of applications in various fields such as controlled and targeted drug delivery, bio-imaging, agriculture, 3D printing, physics, mechanics, etc. Nanocarriers avoid local irritation and toxicity. The nanocarrier drug delivery system has emerged as interesting field that broaden up the use various drugs (lipophillic and hydrophilic) and provides ease of fabrication of formulations that can be efficiently delivered via topical route. The nanocarrier based delivery has been explored to deliver hydrophilic and lipophilic drug candidates through stratum corneum with local and systemic effects for the treatment of variety different skin diseases. Nanocarriers such as a nanoparticle, dendrimer, ethosome, and liposome are made up of polymers and material that differ in structure and chemical nature. These nanocarriers can deliver the drug at the target site and reduce side effects by lowering drug doses. This review covers all aspects of pharmaceutical nanocarriers related to their applications and recent advancements.