Enhanced Ex Vivo Skin Retention of Bicalutamide Using a Nano-in-Micro Composite: Drug-Loaded Lipid Vesicles in a Dissolving Microarray Patch

    April 2025 in “ European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics ”
    Miquel Martínez‐Navarrete, Mafalda Correia, José Alejandro Bernabeu-Martínez, Ana Cláudia Paiva‐Santos, Ana Borrego‐Sánchez, Antonio José Guillot
    TLDR The new drug delivery system improves bicalutamide skin retention for better treatment of hair loss.
    This study presents a novel drug delivery system using bicalutamide-loaded lipid vesicles (BIC-LVs) within dissolving microarray patches (DMAPs) to enhance skin retention of bicalutamide, a treatment for androgenetic alopecia. The BIC-LVs@DMAPs demonstrated effective mechanical properties, allowing them to penetrate the stratum corneum and improve drug retention in ex vivo murine skin models. The system showed a 3-fold increase in permeability constant and retained 40% of the drug dose in the skin after 48 hours, indicating controlled release and enhanced delivery to deeper skin layers. The study highlights the potential of BIC-LVs@DMAPs for improving early-stage treatments of androgen-dependent skin conditions with fewer side effects, supporting future in vivo studies and clinical applications.
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