BioMedical Engineering OnLine· 2025Q1· Review
The future of vesicular drug delivery: transferosomes in therapeutic advancement—applications, innovations and challenges
- 30citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2025year
Short summary
Transferosomes, ultra-deformable lipid vesicles, facilitate transdermal drug delivery by disrupting the stratum corneum and transporting molecules via a hydration gradient, showing promise for diverse therapeutics like anticancer agents and insulin.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Transferosomes are ultra-deformable lipid vesicles that enhance transdermal drug delivery.
- They penetrate the skin's stratum corneum via diffusion, driven by a hydration gradient.
- Transferosomes can deliver a wide range of therapeutics, including proteins and peptides.
- Innovations like hybrid systems and polymer coatings aim to improve stability and therapeutic potential.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Transferosomes represent a novel vesicular drug delivery system developed to overcome the limitations of traditional transdermal systems. These ultra-deformable lipid bilayers facilitate barrier disruption via diffusion across the stratum corneum and transport both small molecules and macromolecules such as proteins and peptides. This review discusses the structural components of transferosomes, methods of preparation and methods of characterization, with an emphasis on the unique mechanism of skin penetration that is initiated by a trans-epidermal hydration gradient. The potential applications for transferosomes span a wide range of therapeutics including antioxidants, corticosteroids, anticancer agents, NSAIDs and biomolecules, such as insulin and interferons. Transferosomes offer many benefits such as enhanced bioavailability, reduced systemic effects, regional action, and improved patient adherence. However, the leap to clinical applications has been challenging due to barriers related to stability, scalability, complex formulations, variability in skin biology and toxicity. Recent innovations-hybrid vesicular systems, polymer-coated transferosomes and lyophilization to improve stability or laden transferosomes with topical cosmeceuticals and neurotherapeutics-are examples of a more novel therapeutic approach to help patients. Future directions may involve stimuli-responsive systems, buccal and intranasal delivery, and microneedle arrays or a personalized medicine model. In sum, transferosomes represent a flexible nanocarrier platform that has the potential to change transdermal and mucosal drug delivery through an integrated approach between pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. BioMedical Engineering OnLine, 2025 · DOI ↗
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Field: Pharmaceutical Science
Pharmaceutical SciencePharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics