Topical delivery of paclitaxel for treatment of skin cancer

Context: Skin cancer represents the most growing types of cancer in human and ultraviolet radiation can be cited as one of the prime factor for its occurrence. Current therapy of skin cancer suffers from numerous side effects; for effective therapy, topical application of formulation of paclitaxel (PTX) can be considered as a novel approach. Objective: The present study is an attempt to prepare formulation of solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) of PTX for the effective treatment of various form of skin carcinoma. Methods: The SLN were prepared by high-speed homogenization and ultrasonication method. The prepared SLN were characterized. The optimized PTX SLN were loaded in carbopol gel. The prepared gels were evaluated for its gelling properties and finally studied for in vivo anti-cancer efficacy and histopathological study. Results: The particle size distribution was found to be in the range of 78.82-587.8 nm. The product yield (%) was found between 60% and 66% and showed a highest entrapment efficiency of 68.3%. The in vitro release of the drug from SLN dispersion was found to be biphasic with the initial burst effect, followed by slow release. SLN-loaded gel were subjected to permeability study and the results show steady-state flux (J ss ), permeability coefficient (K p ), and enhancement ratio were significantly increased in SLN-loaded gel formulation as compared with PTX-loaded gel. The histopathological study clearly reveals the efficacy of the SLN-F3 3G in the treatment of skin cancer. Conclusion: The experimental formulations show controlled release of PTX and thus expected to show reduce dose-related side effects.