ORAL NOISOME AND PRONIOSOMES: MECHANISTIC INSIGHTS, FORMULATION STRATEGIES, AND THERAPEUTIC APPLICATIONS IN ENHANCING BIOAVAILABILITY AND TARGETED DRUG DELIVERY

Oral drug delivery is still the easiest and most popular way to take
medicine, but it comes with a lot of problems. Some drugs just don’t
dissolve well in water, or they can’t pass through the gut easily. Others
break down because of enzymes or get wiped out by first-pass metabolism,
so the body barely absorbs them, and they don’t work as well as they
should. That’s where vesicular systems like liposomes and their dry forms,
proniosomes, come in. These carriers, made from non-ionic surfactants
and cholesterol, protect drugs from breaking down in the digestive tract
and let the medicine release slowly over time. How you put these together
really matters. Things like the type of surfactant, how much cholesterol you
use, the size of the vesicles, and their surface charge—all these affect how
much of the drug gets into your system and how quickly. Modifying the
surface, say by adding PEG or coating with chitosan, helps the drug stick
to mucosal surfaces, improves how well it passes through, and makes it
tougher against enzymes. Drugs get absorbed better thanks to things like
increased endocytosis, tweaks to tight junctions, and transport through the
lymphatic system. This review digs into how these vesicular systems are
designed, how they help drugs get absorbed, what you need to look for
when testing them, and what it takes to actually use them in real-world
treatments.