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Solid–lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers are delivery systems for the delivery of drugs and other bioactives used in diagnosis, therapy, and treatment procedures. These nanocarriers may enhance the solubility and permeability of drugs, increase their bioavailability, and extend the residence time in the body, combining low toxicity with a targeted delivery. Nanostructured lipid carriers are the second generation of lipid nanoparticles differing from solid lipid nanoparticles in their composition matrix. The use of a liquid lipid together with a solid lipid in nanostructured lipid carrier allows it to load a higher amount of drug, enhance drug release properties, and increase its stability. Therefore, a direct comparison between solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers is needed. This review aims to describe solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers as drug delivery systems, comparing both, while systematically elucidating their production methodologies, physicochemical characterization, and in vitro and in vivo performance. In addition, the toxicity concerns of these systems are focused on.

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) plays a vital role in the protection and maintenance of homeostasis in the brain. In this way, it is an interesting target as an interface for various types of drug delivery, specifically in the context of the treatment of several neuropathological conditions where the therapeutic agents cannot cross the BBB. Drug toxicity and on-target specificity are among some of the limitations associated with current neurotherapeutics. In recent years, advances in nanodrug delivery have enabled the carrier system containing the active therapeutic drug to target the signaling pathways and pathophysiology that are closely linked to central nervous system (CNS) disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD), multiple sclerosis (MS), brain tumor, epilepsy, ischemic stroke, and neurodegeneration. At present, among the nano formulations, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) have emerged as a putative drug carrier system that can deliver the active therapeutics (drug-loaded SLNs) across the BBB at the target site of the brain, offering a novel approach with controlled drug delivery, longer circulation time, target specificity, and higher efficacy, and more importantly, reducing toxicity in a biomimetic way. This paper highlights the synthesis and application of SLNs as a novel nontoxic formulation strategy to carry CNS drugs across the BBB to improve the use of therapeutics agents in treating major neurological disorders in future clinics.

Essential oils are being studied for more than 60 years, but a growing interest has emerged in the recent decades due to a desire for a rediscovery of natural remedies. Essential oils are known for millennia and, already in prehistoric times, they were used for medicinal and ritual purposes due to their therapeutic properties. Using a variety of methods refined over the centuries, essential oils are extracted from plant raw materials: the choice of the extraction method is decisive, since it determines the type, quantity, and stereochemical structure of the essential oil molecules. To these components belong all properties that make essential oils so interesting for pharmaceutical uses; the most investigated ones are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, wound-healing, and anxiolytic activities. However, the main limitations to their use are their hydrophobicity, instability, high volatility, and risk of toxicity. A successful strategy to overcome these limitations is the encapsulation within delivery systems, which enable the increase of essential oils bioavailability and improve their chemical stability, while reducing their volatility and toxicity. Among all the suitable platforms, our review focused on the lipid-based ones, in particular micro- and nanoemulsions, liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, and nanostructured lipid carriers.

In the era of nanoparticulate controlled and site specific drug delivery systems, use of solid lipids to produce first generation lipid nanoparticles, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN), became a revolutionary approach in the early nineties. The present review is designed to provide an insight into how SLN are finding a niche as promising nanovectors and forms a sound basis to troubleshoot the existing problems associated with traditional systems. Herein, authors had tried to highlight the frontline aspects prominent to SLN. An updated list of lipids, advanced forms of SLN, methods of preparation, characterization parameters, and various routes of administration of SLN are explored in-depth. Stability, toxicity, stealthing, targeting efficiency and other prospectives of SLN are also discussed in detail. The present discussion embodies the potential of SLN, now being looked up by various research groups around the world for their utility in the core areas of pharmaceutical sciences, thereby urging pharmaceutical industries to foster their scale-up.

Nano-range bioactive colloidal carrier systems are envisaged to overcome the challenges associated with treatments of numerous diseases. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), one of the extensively investigated drug delivery systems, not only improve pharmacokinetic parameters, transportation, and chemical stability of encapsulated compounds but also provide efficient targeting and reduce the risk of toxicity. Over the last decades, nature-derived polyphenols, vitamins, antioxidants, dietary supplements, and herbs have received more attention due to their remarkable biological and pharmacological health and medical benefits. However, their poor aqueous solubility, compromised stability, insufficient absorption, and accelerated elimination impede research in the nutraceutical sector. Owing to the possibilities offered by various LNPs, their ability to accommodate both hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules and the availability of various preparation methods suitable for sensitive molecules, loading natural fragile molecules into LNPs offers a promising solution. The primary objective of this work is to explore the synergy between nature and nanotechnology, encompassing a wide range of research aimed at encapsulating natural therapeutic molecules within LNPs.

Nanoparticles are solid colloidal particles which are having a size or dimensions ranging from 1-100nm.The word nano is derived from a Greek word ‘nanos’ which means extremely small, so nanoparticles are the particles that are extremely small in size. Colloidal particles are manufactured by either natural or synthetic polymers and are able to reduce toxicity, but due to certain limitation of these polymeric nanoparticles alternative carriers of lipid were formed. These alternative forms are known as Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs). SLNs are the novel nanoparticulate systems consisting of colloidal carriers having a size 50-100nm. In these systems basically physiological lipids are dispersed in water or in any other surfactant solutions. SLNs are made up of a solid hydrophobic core which is coated with a monolayer of phospholipid. The drug is dissolved or dispersed in a solid hydrophobic core. SLNs are able to carry lipophillic drugs with them and are able to achieve sustained release of drug. SLNs can be given via different routes. SLNs can be prepared by different methods and are characterized using SEM, TEM, DSC, TGA etc. Now SLNs are used in different aspects like in cosmaceuticals, targeting, in antitubercular chemotherapy. SLNs have different advantages like they improve the stability of pharmaceuticals, have excellent bioavailability.

Oils and lipids help make water-insoluble drugs soluble by dispersing them in an aqueous medium with the help of a surfactant and enabling their absorption across the gut barrier. The emergence of microemulsions (thermodynamically stable), nanoemulsions (kinetically stable), and self-emulsifying drug delivery systems added unique characteristics that make them suitable for prolonged storage and controlled release. In the 1990s, solid-phase lipids were introduced to reduce drug leakage from nanoparticles and prolong drug release. Manipulating the structure of emulsions and solid lipid nanoparticles has enabled multifunctional nanoparticles and the loading of therapeutic macromolecules such as proteins, nucleic acid, vaccines, etc. Phospholipids and surfactants with a well-defined polar head and carbon chain have been used to prepare bilayer vesicles known as liposomes and niosomes, respectively. The increasing knowledge of targeting ligands and external factors to gain control over pharmacokinetics and the ever-increasing number of synthetic lipids are expected to make lipid nanoparticles and vesicular systems a preferred choice for the encapsulation and targeted delivery of therapeutic agents. This review discusses different lipids and oil-based nanoparticulate systems for the delivery of water-insoluble drugs. The salient features of each system are highlighted, and special emphasis is given to studies that compare them.

Solid lipid nanoparticles are one of the developed technologies for addressing the bioavailability and targeting issues of drug delivery. In this review article, we attempted to incorporate all the essential details of SLNs like various methods of preparation, different models of SLNs, updated characterization methods, in-vivo behavior (Uptake), their applications, route of administration as well as advancements taken place in the field of delivery of biological drugs like gene vector, new adjuvant for vaccines, protein, and peptide with SLNs. Surface modified SLNs hold excellent potential for targeted and controlled drug delivery which is discussed and summarized. Based on the available data, the future success of SLNs is widened because they could be easily fabricated with various functionalities which would display enormous potential for targeting and diagnosing various diseases. This review would help the budding researchers to find out the unexplored areas of SLNs with the present discussion that reframes the potential of SLNs by gathering the various research findings of SLNs in tabular form along with the approved patent technologies of SLNs.

Skin may be affected by many disorders that can be treated by topical applications of drugs on the action site. With the advent of nanotechnologies, new efficient delivery systems have been developed. Particularly, lipid-based nanosystems such as liposomes, ethosomes, transferosomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, cubosomes, and monoolein aqueous dispersions have been proposed for cutaneous application, reaching in some cases the market or clinical trials. This review aims to provide an overview of the different lipid-based nanosystems, focusing on their use for topical application. Particularly, biocompatible nanosystems able to dissolve lipophilic compounds and to control the release of carried drug, possibly reducing side effects, are described. Notably, the rationale to topically administer antioxidant molecules by lipid nanocarriers is described. Indeed, the structural similarity between the nanosystem lipid matrix and the skin lipids allows the achievement of a transdermal effect. Surely, more research is required to better understand the mechanism of interaction between lipid-based nanosystems and skin. However, this attempt to summarize and highlight the possibilities offered by lipid-based nanosystems could help the scientific community to take advantage of the benefits derived from this kind of nanosystem.

In this work, we developed a solid lipid nanoparticle (SLN) formulation with (+)-limonene 1,2-epoxide and glycerol monostearate (Lim-SLNs), stabilized with Poloxamer® 188 in aqueous dispersion to modify the release profile of the loaded monoterpene derivative. We also evaluated the role of SLNs in lipid peroxidation and cytotoxicity in a spontaneously transformed aneuploid immortal keratinocyte cell line from adult human skin (the HaCaT cell line). For the cell viability assay, the colorimetric 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used. Lim-SLNs with a loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency of 0.39% and 63%, respectively, were produced by high pressure homogenization. A mean particle size of 194 ± 3.4 nm and polydispersity index of 0.244 were recorded for the loaded Lim-SLNs, as compared to 203 ± 1.5 nm (PI 0.213) for the non-loaded (blank) SLNs. The loading of the monoterpene derivative into glycerol monostearate SLNs fitted into the zero-order kinetics, and ameliorated both lipid peroxidation and cytotoxicity in a keratinocyte cell line. A promising formulation for antioxidant and anti-tumoral activities is here proposed.