Drug targeting through pilosebaceous route

Local skin targeting is of interest for the pharmaceutical and the cosmetic industry. A topically applied substance has basically three possibilities to penetrate into the skin: transcellular, intercellular, and follicular. The transfollicular path has been largely ignored because hair follicles constitute only 0.1% of the total skin. The hair follicle is a skin appendage with a complex structure containing many cell types that produce highly specialised proteins. The hair follicle is in a continuous cycle: anagen is the hair growth phase, catagen the involution phase and telogen is the resting phase. Nonetheless, the hair follicle has great potential for skin treatment, owing to its deep extension into the dermis and thus provides much deeper penetration and absorption of compounds beneath the skin than seen with the transdermal route. In the case of skin diseases and of cosmetic products, delivery to sweat glands or to the pilosebaceous unit is essential for the effectiveness of the drug. Increased accumulation in the pilosebaceous unit could treat alopecia, acne and skin cancer more efficiently and improve the effect of cosmetic substances and nutrients. Therefore, we review herein various drug delivery systems, including liposomes, niosomes, microspheres, nanoparticles, nanoemulsions, lipid nanocarriers, gene therapy and discuss the results of recent researches. We also review the drugs which have been investigated for pilosebaceous delivery.