A narrative review on potential applications of spanlastics for nose-to-brain delivery of therapeutically active agents

Abstract

Spanlastics, which are commonly referred to as elastic niosomes, presents a modified advancement in the area of colloidal system based drug delivery carriers. They are different from niosomes, which are non-ionic surfactant vesicles in having an edge activator. Initially, they were described as ocular drug delivery systems in 2011 by Kakkar and Kaur. Spanlastics have discovered a wide range of applications via different routes of administration. The purpose of this article is to provide information about spanlastics, a newly developed drug delivery system for the management of diseases pertaining to the Central Nervous System (CNS) via intranasal route. The article begins with the details on spanlastics and their composition, their benefits over traditional niosomes, and the mechanism underlying their enhanced absorption. Their applications through various routes of administration in a variety of diseases for a variety of drugs have been discussed. Furthermore, the article explains the nose to brain delivery channels and the advantages that this route offers over conventional delivery routes. Finally, the article discusses the studies encompassing the drug candidates that have been formulated as intranasal spanlastics for the management of different diseased conditions along with the future prospects of this emerging drug delivery system.

Keywords: CNS (central nervous system); Drug delivery; Intranasal delivery; Niosomes; Spanlastics.