Skin photoprotection improvement: synergistic interaction between lipid nanoparticles and organic UV filters

A photoprotective formulation was developed with an increased sunprotection factor (SPF), compared to a conventional nanoemulsion, but having the same concentration of three molecular sunscreens, namely ethylhexyl triazone, bis-ethylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenyl triazine, and ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate. The sunscreen mixture was incorporated into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). The ability of nine different solid lipids to yield stable aqueous NLC suspensions was assessed. After the production by hot high pressure homogenization, the NLC were analyzed in terms of particle size, physical state, particle shape, ultraviolet absorbance and stability. The particle size for all NLC was around 200 nm after production. The NLC suspension with carnauba wax had superior UV absorbance, NLC from bees wax showed similar efficiency as the reference emulsion. The NLC formulations were incorporated into hydrogel formulations and the in vitro SPF was measured. This study demonstrated that approximately 45% higher SPF values could be obtained when the organic UV filters were incorporated into carnauba wax NLC, in comparison to the reference nanoemulsion and bees wax NLC. The data showed that the synergistic effect of NLC and incorporated sunscreens depends not only on the solid state of the lipid but also on its type.