SLN for topical application in skin diseases—Characterization of drug–carrier and carrier–target interactions

The modes of drug–particle interactions considerably influence drug delivery by nanoparticulate carrier systems and drug penetration into the skin. The exact mechanism of the drug loading and its release are still ambiguous. Therefore, the loading process, the interaction of the agent and the lipid matrix of solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) as well as the uptake of the loaded agent by skin lipids were analysed by electron spin resonance (ESR) and parelectric spectroscopy (PS) using spin probes (TEMPO, TEMPOL, and CAT-1) as model drugs differing in their lipophilicity. The spin probes were closely attached to the particles lipid surface (TEMPO) or located in the layers of the surfactant (CAT-1), respectively. Furthermore, two distinct sub-compartments on the SLN were found. To simulate the processes at the phase boundary SLN dispersion/skin, skin lipid mixtures were prepared and the transfer process of the spin labels was followed by ESR tomography. Transfer rates were related to the lipophilicity of the spin probe, the lipid mixture and the applied pharmaceutical formulation, SLN dispersion and aqueous solution, respectively. In particular, SLN accelerated in particular the distribution of the lipophilic agents.