Drug Delivery Through Niosomes: A Comprehensive Review with Therapeutic Applications

Nanocarrier based formulations are increasing due to significant advantages over traditional formulations. They have shown potential in improvement if drug’s physicochemical and biopharmaceutical characteristics. Niosomes (NS) are nonionic surfactant-based vesicles that are biodegradable, nontoxic, and stable drug carrier systems. NS amphiphilic nature makes them effective for encapsulation of lipophilic and hydrophilic active pharmaceutical ingredients. The NS properties can be affected by the production process, type and amount of surfactant, cholesterol concentration, drug concentration, temperature and type of hydration medium. NS have shown potential as an effective drug delivery system to manage a variety of disorders, with the goal of improving patient compliance, reducing side effects, sustained release properties, dose reduction, and targeting of drugs to specific biological sites. The NS based drug delivery systems can be fabricated for different routes of administration, such as oral, parenteral, transdermal and intranasal. This review presents the important characteristics of NS, preparation methods, an in-depth and detailed interpretation of drug loaded NS from diverse classes of therapeutic constituents by reviewing all important aspects through various reports. Clinical investigations and patent reports related to NS based formulations have also been reviewed.