Investigation of Microemulsion System for Transdermal Drug Delivery of Amphotericin B

In order to solve the drawback of poor bioavailability by the oral route and infusion-related side effect for Amphotericin B(AmB), microemulsion vehicles composed of isopropyl myristate(IPM), Tween 80, isopropyl alcohol and water for transdermal delivery of AmB were designed. The pseudo-ternary phase diagrams were constructed by the H2O titration method and the structures of the microemulsion were determined by measuring electrical conductivities(sigma). The diffusion studies of AmB microemulsion were performed via excised rabbit skin on a drug diffusion apparatus. To obtain a high solubization of AmB, three different methods were tested to incorporate AmB into microemulsion. The result suggests adding AmB in the shape of NaOH solution to the O/W blank microemulsion over the phase inversion temperature(PIT) of the emulsifier obtains the maximum drug content(2.96 mg/mL). The pH value of the system could be adjusted to pH>8.5 or pH<5.2, in this range AmB molecules converts from aqueous to the hydrophilic shell of the microemulsion droplets, drug precipitate is no more than 5%, and the formulations were corresponding to the characterizations of microemulsion. At pH 5.14, AmB microemulsion with K-m 1:1, O/SC 1:9(mass ratio of oil phase to surfactant/cosurfactant blend), water content 64.6%, drug content (2.93 +/- 0.08) mg/mL, showed the maximum permeation rate (3.255 +/- 0.64) mu g.cm(-2).h(-1), which is stable for a long time.