Onychomycosis is the most common
nail disease affecting nail plate and nail bed.
Onychomycosis causes
onycholysis which creates cavity between the nail plate and nail bed, where
drug formulations could be applied, providing a direct contact of
drug with the nail bed facilitating
drug delivery on the infected area. The purpose of the present study was to design and evaluate the potential of microemulsion-based gel as colloidal carrier for
itraconazole for delivery into onycholytic nails for effective treatment of
onychomycosis.
Itraconazole-loaded microemulsions were prepared and optimized using D-optimal design. The microemulsion containing 6.24 % oil, 36 % Smix, and 57.76 % water was selected as the optimized batch (MEI). The globule size and
drug loading of the optimized batch were 48.2 nm and 12.13 mg/ml, respectively. Diffused reflectance FTIR studies were performed to study
drug-
excipient incompatibility. Ex vivo permeation studies were carried out using bovine hoof and human cadaver skin as models for nail plate and nail bed, respectively. Microemulsion-based
itraconazole gel (MBGI) showed better penetration and retention in human skin as well as bovine hoof as compared to commercial preparation (market formulation, MFI). The cumulative amount of
itraconazole permeated from the MBGI after 12 h was 73.39 ± 3.55 μg cm(-2) which was 1.8 times more than MF. MBGI showed significantly higher ex vivo antifungal activity (P < 0.05) against Candida albicans and Trichophyton rubrum when compared to MFI. Stability studies showed that MBGI was stable at refrigeration and room temperature for 3 months. It was concluded that
drug-loaded gel could be a promising formulation for effective treatment of
onychomycosis.