Transdermal delivery of inflammatory factors regulated drugs for rheumatoid arthritis

Drug Deliv. 2022 Dec;29(1):1934-1950. doi: 10.1080/10717544.2022.2089295.

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease, with the features of recurrent chronic inflammation of synovial tissue, destruction of cartilage, and bone erosion, which further affects joints tissue, organs, and systems, and eventually leads to irreversible joint deformities and body dysfunction. Therapeutic drugs for rheumatoid arthritis mainly reduce inflammation through regulating inflammatory factors. Transdermal administration is gradually being applied to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, which can allow the drug to overcome the skin stratum corneum barrier, reduce gastrointestinal side effects, and avoid the first-pass effect, thus improving bioavailability and relieving inflammation. This paper reviewed the latest research progress of transdermal drug delivery in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, and discussed in detail the dosage forms such as gel (microemulsion gel, nanoemulsion gel, nanomicelle gel, sanaplastic nano-vesiclegel, ethosomal gel, transfersomal gel, nanoparticles gel), patch, drug microneedles, nanostructured lipid carrier, transfersomes, lyotropic liquid crystal, and drug loaded electrospinning nanofibers, which provide inspiration for the rich dosage forms of transdermal drug delivery systems for rheumatoid arthritis.

Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis; inflammatory factors; nanocarriers; topical delivery; transdermal delivery.

MeSH terms

  • Administration, Cutaneous
  • Arthritis, Rheumatoid* / drug therapy
  • Drug Delivery Systems
  • Humans
  • Inflammation / drug therapy
  • Nanoparticles* / chemistry
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations
  • Skin

Substances

  • Pharmaceutical Preparations

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the Key projects of industrial science and technology plan in Qiannan prefecture (2017(11)), the Academic promotion program of Shandong First Medical University (2019QL011) and Shandong Province post-doctoral innovation projects (202003084). Thanks to Dr. Edward C. Mignot, Shandong University, for linguistic advice.