Oleodendrimers: A novel class of multicephalous heterolipids as chemical penetration enhancers for transdermal drug delivery

• Synthesis of oleic acid based bi and quadricephalous Janus type dendrimers–oleodendrimers.
• In vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo skin irritation studies of oleodendrimers.
• Evaluation as penetration enhancers for transdermal drug delivery using diclofenac sodium as a model.
• Significant increase in steady-state flux (ERflux) of the model drug.

This paper reports synthesis and evaluation of Janus type generation G-1 and G-2 dendrimers. The dendrimers have been constructed by linking two building blocks, dendrons and oleic acid, through ester and amide bonds and were well characterized by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), 1H NMR, 13C NMR and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). The dendrimers have been evaluated for in vitro cytotoxicity using sulforhodamine B assay (SRB assay) and in vivo skin irritation potential. The ester linked dendrimers did not exhibit any cytotoxicity even up to 80 μg/ml while G-1 and G-2 generations dendrimers with amide linkage exhibited toxicity above 70 μg/ml and 21 μg/ml, respectively, none of the dendrimers showed any skin irritation. All the dendrimers, tested for their skin permeation enhancement potential using diclofenac sodium (DS) as a model drug at a concentration of 1% in gels, showed significant increase in steady-state flux (ERflux) of the drug as compared to control (without enhancer), and oleic acid. Amongst the dendrimers, the ester linked G-1 and G-2 dendrimers showed highest ERflux, 3.33 ± 0.31 and 3.39 ± 0.21, respectively.

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