Mechanisms of Transdermal Drug Delivery (Drugs and the Pharmaceutical Sciences)

The objective of this book is to provide an up-to-date and critical evaluation of the application of biophysical tools and analysis for the determination of molecular transport across the skin. Both the nature of the passive permeability barrier and the impact of diverse penetration enhancement strategies are considered and discussed.
The rationale for such a text is based on the fact that, within the last two decades, there have been several quantum leaps of understanding in the physical principles underlying molecular diffusion across the stratum comeum. The major stimulus, of course, was the recognition that the lipid-filled, intercellular domains of this unique membrane were crucially important to barrier function. In turn, this led to detailed examination of the stratum comeum by the veritable arsenal of techniques available to the biophysicist. Suddenly, it was possible to discuss permeation mechanisms at the molecular level. Furthermore, realizing the opportunity presented, the pharmaceutical community could now revisit many unanswered questions about penetration enhancement and rethink the feasibility and optimization of transdermal drug delivery for both conventional substances and the more challenging species emerging from the biotechnology industry.