Niosomes: A Smart Drug Carrier Synthesis, Properties and Applications

초록

Niosomes fall into the category of vesicular drug delivery systems as they have lamellar structures that are formed due to the self-assembly of nonionic surfactants. Compared to other vesicular carriers, such as liposomes, niosomes are less toxic due to their nonionic composition. Other added advantages include lesser cost, better stability under wide varieties of pH and better drug carrier capacity. Although developed initially to be used in the cosmeceutical industry, niosomes enter into pharmaceutics, which can be mainly attributed to their multidrug carrier ability. However, niosomes are also associated with shortcomings, some of them being lower drug encapsulation efficiency, non-uniform-sized vesicles and drug leakage during synthesis. In this chapter, an attempt is being made to give the reader an overall idea about the synthesis and characterization of niosomes and the factors affecting its morphology and stability. In addition, the progress made in the research studies and the applications of niosomes is also discussed. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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