Influence of low frequency ultrasound associated with hydrogels on the skin permeability and in topical skin cancer treatment

Author(s)

Tatiana Aparecida Pereira

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Ribeirão Preto.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC)
• Defense date: 2015-06-23

Examining board members

Renata Fonseca Vianna Lopez; Antonio Adilton Oliveira Carneiro; Leila Aparecida Chiavacci Favorin; Juliana Maldonado Marchetti

• Advisor: Renata Fonseca Vianna Lopez

Abstract

Skin cancer is a disease with high worldwide incidence. Topical treatment of skin cancer is a desired strategy since it can reduce the serious adverse effects caused by surgery and systemic chemotherapy. However, current topical treatments are limited by low effectiveness of the formulations delivery drug to the deeper layers of the skin. Thus, the low frequency ultrasound (LFU) presents itself as an attractive method, but still little studied, to increase skin permeability. Therefore, the objective of this work was to study changes in the LFU coupling medium composition to increase the transport localized region (LTRs) in the skin and the permeability of chemotherapeutic doxorubicin (DOX) for the topical skin cancer treatment. For this, a Poloxamer hydrogel (nanogel) supplemented with solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) containing DOX was prepared and characterized; different coupling medium, including traditional, containing surfactant, and innovative, containing the NLS or hydrogels with different viscosities and zeta potential similar, were evaluated associated with the LFU to verify its influence in LTRs formation and skin penetration of two drugs, calcein and DOX; skin penetration of free and encapsulated DOX was quantified in the different layers of the LFU pretreated skin; and finally, the most promising pretreatment, LFU associated with nanogel, followed by the passive application of DOX incorporated into the nanogel was evaluated in vivo, in skin tumors induced in immunosuppressed mice. The NLS showed size and PDI of approximately 200 nm and 0.3, respectively, with high cationic zeta potential and pH 3 value. The incorporation of the NLS into the nanogel did not change the size and PDI, however, decreased the zeta potential of the formulation and increased pH value to 5.5. It was found by low angle X-ray diffraction that NLS-containing lamellar crystalline phase while the nanogel, cubic crystalline phases, which were maintained when the formulations were associated. The use of NLS and hydrogels, including nanogel, as coupling medium of LFU substantially modify the distribution and number of the LTRs in the skin compared to traditional medium. Both, LTRs number and distribution may be related to the interfacial tension and viscosity of the hydrophilic medium, hydrogel with higher viscosity produced greater LTRs area. The use of nanogel as coupling medium resulted in LTRs formation in 50% of treated skin area, this area is 24 times larger than the LTR area LTRs formed when conventional coupling medium sodium lauryl sulfate was used. It was observed that the influence of the LTRs in the penetration of anionic drugs (calcein) and cationic (DOX) depends on the zeta potential of the hydrogel used as coupling medium and drug. Thus, the permeation of calcein was lower when anionic gel was used as the coupling medium and the opposite occurred for DOX. DOX penetration through the stratum corneum of the skin pretreated with LFU / nanogel increased more than 4 times but the encapsulation of DOX in the NLS difficult the passage of DOX to the deeper layers of the skin after pre-treatment with LFU, suggesting the recovery of the skin by lipid particles administered after pretreatment. In the in vivo study, pretreatment of the skin with LFU / nanogel followed by the daily application of nanogel containing DOX resulted in a 6-fold decrease in tumor volume after 21 days of treatment with only 5 applications LFU / nanogel. However, the reduction of tumor volume occurred only when the LFU probe was positioned 10 mm from the tumor surface. The positioning of the probe at distance closer tumor (5 mm) has not decreased tumor size. It is concluded that the application of coupling medium hydrogels with LFU is a simple and effective alternative to enhance drug penetration into the skin. This penetration can be adjusted depending on the zeta potential of the coupling means and ultrasound probe position on the tumor surface. Therefore, topical treatment of skin cancer using LFU / nanogel as pre-treatment is a promising strategy for the topical treatment of skin cancer. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/20794-3 - Influence of low frequency ultrasound (LFU) associated with different coupling medium in skin permeability and topical skin cancer treatment.
• Grantee: Tatiana Aparecida Pereira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate