Advances in the transdermal delivery of antiretroviral drugs

Antiretroviral therapy regimens are successful in stopping the advancement of human immunodeficiency virus infection to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, and other opportunistic infections. However, they do have significant disadvantages, including long-term treatment, limited oral bioavailability, inaccessibility to organs, non-adherence by patients, and the development of medication resistance. Because of the listed drawbacks of available routes and the availability of curative medicines for human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, advanced solutions are required. Antiretroviral therapy transdermal delivery is one of the current strategies that have attracted much attention from many researchers. In this narrative review, various in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo transdermal antiretroviral therapy delivery strategies were reviewed, such as transdermal patches and films, lipid-based nano-delivery systems, microneedles, chemical penetration enhancers, and iontophoresis, which showed promising results. Although the majority of studies on Antiretroviral transdermal delivery have produced hopeful findings, additional in-depth research on passive and physical enhancement techniques, both existing and new, is necessary to fully understand the potential of this route and to make it accessible to human immunodeficiency virus patients.