ENHANCEMENT OF FOLLICULAR DELIVERY OF FINASTERIDE IN NIOSOMALAND PRONIOSOMAL GEL FORM FOR TREATING ANDROGENETIC ALOPECIA

Finasteride has not been explored extensively for the treatment of androgenic alopecia. The present workwas aimed to enhance the follicular delivery of finasteride topically by niosomal and proniosomal carriersystems for treating androgenetic alopecia. Finasteride niosomes were prepared by thin film hydrationmethod and proniosomes were prepared by coacervation phase separation method. The niosomesprepared with cholesterol-Span 20 (1:1) and proniosmes prepared with cholesterol-Span 20 (1:1) showedbetter mean vesicle size, drug content, in vitro release profile and skin permeability. The effect of chargeinducer, dicetyl phosphate (DCP) on skin permeability of niosomes and proniosomes was studied and itwas found to be less in this study. Stability studies were preformed and the formulation was found to bestable for 60 days. Clinical trials by phototrichogram method was performed for proniosomal formulationwith cholesterol-Span 20 (1:1) and DCP on twenty healthy male volunteers and it was found to increasethe anagen hair count of test group by 42.85 % when compared with the control group (6.6%), indicatingthe proniosomal gel formulation achieved the objective of enhancing the drug concentration in androgenicreceptors of hair shaft and thus it can be used safely for treating androgenic alopecia.