Cyclosporine and Pentoxifylline laden tailored niosomes for the effective management of psoriasis: In-vitro optimization, Ex-vivo and animal study.

Psoriasis is a chronic skin inflammatory auto-immune disorder. Cyclosporine is the drug of choice in severe cases of psoriasis for systemic administration. But its systemic administration leads to some serious side effects like nephrotoxicity and cardiovascular disorders. Pentoxifylline is reported to reduce such side effects of cyclosporine and also it is found useful in the management of psoriasis. In this study, Box-Behnken design was used to prepare and optimize Cyclosporine and Pentoxifylline loaded niosomes. The optimized niosomes were prepared using cholesterol and surfactant (7:3), a total of 500 µmol. Ratio of Tween 80 to span 80 for the preparation of optimized niosome was 0.503 (tween80:span80), and hydration and sonication time were kept at 60 min and 10 min, respectively. Size, Poly Dispersity Index, zeta potential, and % entrapment efficiency of Pentoxifylline and cyclosporine, for optimized niosomes were found to be 179 nm, 0.285, -37.5 mV, 84.6%, and 75.3%, respectively. The optimized niosomes were further studied for in-vitro skin permeation and skin deposition. Though niosomes significantly influenced the permeation of both drugs, only a small amount of drug (both cyclosporine and Pentoxifylline) was permeated through the skin. In comparison with the permeation, the quantity of drug retained in the stratum corneum and viable epidermis (SC and VED) was very high. In the in-vivo studies conducted on mice induced with psoriasis using imiquimod, both the histopathology and psoriasis area severity index has shown marked improvement in the skin condition of mice treated with niosomes loaded with Pentoxifylline and cyclosporine, in comparison with the solution/suspension of individual drugs. The study shows that niosomes could be effectively used for the simultaneous delivery of cyclosporine and Pentoxifylline for the better management of psoriasis.