Preparation and Evaluation of 5-Florouracil loaded Nano-Structured lipid carrier by double emulsification techniques

Skin cancer remains the second most common cancer causing death in majority of the population worldwide.” Chemotherapeutical treatment generally includes treatment by administration of chemotherapeutical formulations mostly by intravenous route of administration which is painful, toxic, time consuming and costly for the patients. Chemotherapy also causes toxicity and cell death to other normal cells in the body apart from cancerous cells. The aim of the present investigation was to formulate a topical nano-particulate drug delivery system which causes lower exposure to normal body cells by higher efficacy of targeting the cancerous cells, producing lower toxicity rates and avoiding maximum possible side effects.” “Henceforth, an anti-neoplastic agent has been used in order to prepare Nano-structured Lipid Carriers (NLCs) which was further loaded into gel formulation for topical application. “The nano-structured lipid carrier (NLCs) of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) were prepared by using Compritol ATO 888 by double emulsification method.” The lipids were selected based on the solubility studies and partition coefficient of 5-FU in lipids. The particle size of optimized formulation was found to be 246.2nm. The in vitro release studies of developed NLCs was carriers carried out at pH 7.4. Sodium carboxy methylcellulose, hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose , and chitosan hydrogels loaded with NLCs were developed. The permeability behavior through dialysis membrane was performed for 24 hrs and Q 24 of optimized gel formulation was found to be 435.974µg/cm2.The steady-state flux (Jss) was found to be 0.062102 mg/cm2 , and permeability coefficient (Kp) was found to be 4.14013 cm/hr for optimized NLCs based gel  formulation  for ex-vivo skin permeability studies. Keywords: Nano-structured lipid carrier (NLCs), Steady-state flux, Permeability coefficient