Design and development of Amphotericin-B loaded transungual drug delivery system for the effective management of onychomycosis

Year 2025, Volume: 29 Issue: 1, 210 - 221

Amulyaratna Behera Yashwant Giri Barsha Priyadarshini Gurudutta Pattnaik Biswaranjan Mohanty Sk Habibullah , B Jyotirmayee

Abstract

The present research aims to formulate and evaluate the emulgel containing different penetration enhancers for the transungual delivery of Amphotericin B (AmB). Amphotericin B is a widely used antifungal agent in treating infections caused by Candida, Aspergillus, and Fusarium, which are also responsible organisms for onychomycosis. The emulsions were prepared using the fusion method of oil, surfactant, co-surfactant, and distilled water. The formulated emulsions were homogenized with a high-speed homogenizer to reduce globule size and incorporated into the gel base of different concentrations. The formulation undergoes physical evaluations, as well as spreadability, extrudability, washability, viscosity, and in-vitro drug release studies. EG5 was selected as an optimized Formulation from the drug release study as it showed a better release profile. Different penetration enhancers were added and further evaluated in the optimized formulation for parameters like in-vitro drug release, drug uptake, and stability study. Physical characteristics, spreadability, extrudability, washability, and viscosity of all the prepared emulgels were acceptable. Optimized formulation EG-5SS showed better drug release, uptake, and oil binding capacity. All the studies concluded that the EG-5SS was the best formulation and sodium sulfide could be used as a potential permeation enhancer.

Keywords

Emulgel, transungual, penetration enhancers, candida, onychomycosis

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