Curcumin Niosomes (curcusomes) as an alternative to conventional vehicles: A potential for efficient dermal delivery

This research aimed to enhance the skin delivery of curcumin niosome (curcusome) made by a thin film hydration technique. To optimize the cucusome formulations the effect of the ratio of cholesterol:surfactants was investigated. The solid-state and morphology of curcumin in curcusome was characterized by photon correlation spectroscopy, powder x-ray diffractometer (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The results showed that the particle size of curcusomes decreased by adding cholesterol. The results showed that the size and zeta potential of nanoparticles can be modulated by the changes in cholesterol and surfactant concentrations. Zeta potential data showed an increase in this value from -0.73 +/- 0.31 to -9.31 +/- 0.97 mV when the concentration of cholesterol declined from 1.8 to 0%. Maximum entrapment efficiency around 95% was observed for a formulation with the greatest content of cholesterol. Solid-state analysis results ruled out any interaction between excipients and curcumin, and also showed that curcumin was in an amorphous state in the niosomes. Skin permeation test showed that the amounts of the curcumin in skin layers and the receptor chamber was greater for curcusome than when the curcumin solution was used. The skin irritation test of the formulations on Wistar rats showed that the curcumin niosomal gels were not irritant. Finally, curcusome formulations revealed considerable antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities compared to the control group in the late phase. The utilizations of the curcusome gel modified the tail-flick latency as compared to the curcumin simple gel, placebo, as well as the simple gel (P < 0.05). These results suggested that nisomes could enhance the efficiency of curcumin as an antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory agent via improvement in drug delivery to the target location.