Positively and negatively charged liposomes as carriers for transdermal delivery of sumatriptan: in vitro characterization

Background: The influence of liposome composition, lamellarity, preparation method, and charge on the encapsulation efficiency, size, polydispersity, and surface charge of sumatriptan liposomes was studied. For this purpose, we studied multilamellar, unilamellar, and frozen and thawed liposomes. Method: Positively or negatively charged liposomes were obtained using both phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol, in combination with stearylamine or dicetylphosphate. Liposomal formulations were characterized by confocal laser scanning microscopy and optical microscopy for vesicle formation, morphology, and lamellarity, by dynamic laser light scattering for size distribution and polydispersity, and electrophoretic mobility for zeta potential determination. To obtain more information about the sumatriptan encapsulation, dynamic dialysis technique was employed. The sumatriptan amount was quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. Results: Overall obtained results showed that liposomes may be interesting carriers for sumatriptan succinate. Statistical analysis evidenced that the preparation method does not affect the evaluated characterization parameters. However, the presence of charge inducer agents modified these characteristics. Highest loading efficiency of sumatriptan was exhibited for positively charged liposomes containing 6.58:10.34:3.73 mmolar ratio for phosphatidylcholine : cholesterol : stearylamine. The mean size was affected by the charge inducer, being smaller in positively charged liposomes. Logically, surface charge of liposomes varied as a function of the employed charged agent. Also, interesting results were obtained when vesicles were loaded with sumatriptan, showing a statistical significance between all pairs, comparing the formulations with and without drug. Conclusion: Results obtained revealed that the presence of sumatriptan in the vesicles has a different behavior in negative and positively charged liposomes.