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Review
. 2019 Jan 29;11(2):55.
doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics11020055.

Advances of Non-Ionic Surfactant Vesicles (Niosomes) and Their Application in Drug Delivery

Xuemei Ge  1 , Minyan Wei  2 , Suna He  3 , Wei-En Yuan  4
Affiliations
Review

Advances of Non-Ionic Surfactant Vesicles (Niosomes) and Their Application in Drug Delivery

Xuemei Ge et al. Pharmaceutics. .

Abstract

Non-Ionic surfactant based vesicles, also known as niosomes, have attracted much attention in pharmaceutical fields due to their excellent behavior in encapsulating both hydrophilic and hydrophobic agents. In recent years, it has been discovered that these vesicles can improve the bioavailability of drugs, and may function as a new strategy for delivering several typical of therapeutic agents, such as chemical drugs, protein drugs and gene materials with low toxicity and desired targeting efficiency. Compared with liposomes, niosomes are much more stable during the formulation process and storage. The required pharmacokinetic properties can be achieved by optimizing components or by surface modification. This novel delivery system is also easy to prepare and scale up with low production costs. In this paper, we summarize the structure, components, formulation methods, quality control of niosome and its applications in chemical drugs, protein drugs and gene delivery.

Keywords: carrier; drug delivery; niosome; non-ionic surfactant; stability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic structures of non-ionic surfactant vesicle. (a) unilamellar vesicle, (b,c). multi-lamellar vesicle.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Formation of niosomes by proniosomes methods.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Preparation of niosomes by the thin-film hydration method. Reproduced with permission from [13], published by Elsevier, 2014.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Preparation of niosomes by the reversed phase evaporation method. Reproduced with permission from [13], published by Elsevier, 2014.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) SEM image of blank niosomes. TEM images of (b) black, (c) RIF, (d) INH and (e) PZA encapsulated niosomes. Reproduced with permission from [52], published by Elsevier, 2011.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The design of theranostic niosomes for intracellular delivery of siRNA/miRNA and labelling of cells upon dequenching, reproduced with permission from [80], published by American Chemical Society, 2018.
Figure 7
Figure 7
A nanoparticle gains a new biological identify upon its dynamic interactions with biological fluids, giving rise to a protein corona (shown as adsorbed green, blue, and cyan globules), which consequently influences drug delivery and the targeting of functionalized nanoparticles (illustrated as aqua blue fibrils), reproduced with permission from [86], published by American Chemical Society, 2017.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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