Ethosomes: versatile vesicular carriers for efficient transdermal delivery of therapeutic agents

Delivery across skin is attractive due to its easy accessibility. However, drug delivery across skin is still a challenge in biomedical sciences. Over the past few decades, various successful novel devices and techniques have emerged to optimize drug delivery across skin whose obstructing behavior constricts entry of most of the therapeutic agents. Inability of various conventional vesicular formulations, e.g. liposomes to pass through the tapered (>30 nm) intercellular channels of stratum corneum, rendered invention of some lipid based vesicular carrier systems such as ethosomes which consist of phospholipid, ethanol and water. Ethosomes are non-invasive delivery carriers that enable drugs to reach the deep skin layers and/or the systemic circulation. In spite of their sophistication in conceptuality, they are exemplified by easiness in their preparation, safety and efficacy - a combination that can highly inflate their application. This review attempts to describe all aspects of ethosomes including roles and upshots of different excipients, various methods of preparation and characterizations, research reports on various drug deliveries, patent reports and future prospects.