Liposomal fusidic acid as a potential delivery system: a new paradigm in the treatment of chronic plaque psoriasis

Chronic plaque psoriasis is an inflammatory skin disease affecting 2-3% of the world population. With increasing understanding of the progress of disease and its causes, bacterial infection is reported to be one of the potential reasons. In this regard, fusidic acid (FA), a steroidal antibiotic, has been a drug of choice which could play an important role by virtue of its unique mechanism of action. Despite many topical formulations of FA in practice, drug-delivery issues like permeability in the prevailing infectious conditions and stability of the drug are yet the challenges not been covered so far from the formulation development perspective. For these issues, liposomes, on account of their carrier-specific properties, have been suggested as delivery tools to fulfill the expectations. In the present work, FA liposomes (FA-LP) were prepared and characterized for its varied traits such as size (420-740 nm), surface charge, morphology, percent skin permeation (>75%), and retention (1.620 +/- 0.8 mg/cm(2)). Confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) images revealed appreciable cell-uptake of fluorescent dye-loaded liposomes. In stability, FA-LP proved to be stable with respect to drug leakage and vesicle size. In vivo studies using the mouse tail model, FA-LP, are found significantly better (p<0.05) vis-a-vis conventional one with improved efficacy in and around the target site by the carrier-effect. Hence, the work suggests for the possibility of a better FA liposome-based formulation as a potential option in addressing the infectious challenges of psoriasis.