Abstract
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a long-term skin disease that causes redness, itching, and a loss of skin barrier function, which sometime shows significant effect on a person's quality of life. In this study nanostructured lipid carrier (NLCs)-based hydrogel was fabricated for the topical delivery of triamcinolone acetonide (TA) with enhance therapeutic efficacy for the management of AD. TA-loaded NLCs were developed using high pressure homogenizer and characterized. The optimized NLCs composition showed a particle size of 92.06 nm, PDI of 0.324, ZP of -28.81 mV, and entrapment efficiency of 85.17%, suggesting good stability and drug incorporation. Ex vivo skin permeation studies of TA-NLCs hydrogel demonstrated sustained drug permeation of 79.86% at 8 h, significantly higher, comparedto pure drug incorporated hydrogel (p < 0.05). Skin irritation studies verified the safety of the formulation with no significant signs of edema and erythema. The anti-inflammatory effect was assessed using a carrageenan-induced rat paw edema-based assay showed that the TA-NLCs hydrogel had higher inhibition of edema than the marketed corticosteroid cream.Thus, the developed TA-NLCs hydrogel showed enhanced anti-inflammatory efficacy and sustained drug permeation, suggests that the developed TA-NLCs hydrogel could be an efficacious topical delivery system for the management of AD.