Enhanced skin penetration of lidocaine through encapsulation into nanoethosomes and nanostructured lipid carriers: a comparative study

The study investigated the encapsulation of lidocaine into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) and nanoethosomes to enhance its dermal delivery and local anesthetic efficacy. Using excised rat skin and Franz diffusion cells, the study compared these two delivery systems. Optimized lidocaine-loaded NLCs and nanoethosomes were characterized, with NLCs showing a size of 96 nm, zeta potential of -13.7 mV, encapsulation efficiency of 69.86%, and loading capacity of 10.47%, while nanoethosomes had a size of 105.4 nm, zeta potential of -33.6 mV, encapsulation efficiency of 40.14%, and loading capacity of 8.02%. Both systems demonstrated superior skin drug deposition compared to a lidocaine hydroalcoholic solution, with NLCs achieving the highest skin accumulation and lowest drug entry into the receptor phase, indicating better skin-targeted delivery. Overall, NLCs exhibited more promising characteristics than nanoethosomes for dermal delivery of lidocaine.