Transdermal delivery and exploration of preclinical anti-rheumatoid efficacy of pirfenidone embedded nanoemulgel in adjuvant-induced rat model

To avoid adverse effects associated with non-site-specific delivery and target major signaling pathways responsible for the inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis, the current study aims to formulate and evaluate the transdermally administered potential of pirfenidone nanoemulgel in rheumatoid arthritis. The pirfenidone was initially loaded into nanoemulsion by spontaneous nanoemulsification method. The optimized pirfenidone-loaded nanoemulsion diluted with distilled water has shown a droplet size of 9.46 ± 0.01 nm with uniform size distribution evaluated by photon correlation spectroscopy. The optimized pirfenidone nanoemulsion was converted into gel formulation by adding SEPINEO™ P600 gel base with the help of magnetic stirring. The optimized pirfenidone-loaded nanoemulgel has shown a viscosity of 769 ± 05 Pa s with an antigravity nature. Ex vivo permeation study of pirfenidone nanoemulgel in BALB/c mice skin resulted in 1.7 times higher permeation of pirfenidone than free pirfenidone loaded gel. The preclinical efficacy of pirfenidone-loaded nanoemulgel has shown promising results in the rheumatoid arthritis-induced rat model. The right hind paw thickness (##p