Novel nanoproniosomal vesicular carriers for the effective and efficient drug delivery: fundamentals, recent advancements and applications

Nanotechnology is an emerging technology that has brought the upheaval reforms in the domain of pharmaceutical sciences including the development of nanovesicular drug delivery carriers such as proniosomes, niosomes, liposomes, ethosomes, etc. Among them, proniosomes become superior and they surmount the problems of other vesicular carriers. Proniosomes are nano-sized vesicular structures of dry, free-flowing powder (or) gel with encapsulation of drugs in the vesicle that produce multilamellar niosomal dispersion after hydration and they possess the capacity to enhance solubility, permeability and bioavailability of diverse drugs. Proniosomes are suitable to deliver the drugs efficiently through transdermal route to accomplish controlled release action, increased therapeutic effectiveness to various diseases and upon application to the skin, the proniosmes are modified into niosomes in situ by hydration of water from the skin. This study aims to discuss different aspects of proniosomes such as merits, mechanism, types, components, preparation, characterization, drug release, market scenario, future trends and to explore proniosomes for various pharmaceutical applications in drug delivery via different routes, such as topical, transdermal, oral, parenteral, ocular, vaginal, nebulizer and intranasal routes. These proniosomes-derived niosomes are better and may offer an excellent, inexpensive alternative delivery, much more beneficial than other vesicular and conventional dosage forms.