Encapsulating contact allergens in liposomes, ethosomes, and polycaprolactone may affect their sensitizing properties

Attempts to improve formulation of topical products are a continuing process and the development of micro- and nanovesicular systems as well as polymeric microparticles has led to marketing of topical drugs and cosmetics using these technologies. Encapsulation of some well-known contact allergens in ethanolic liposomes have been reported to enhance allergenicity compared with the allergens in similar vehicles without liposomes. The present report includes data on more sensitization studies using the mouse local lymph node assay with three contact allergens encapsulated in different dermal drug-delivery systems: liposomes, ethosomes, and polycaprolactone particles. The results show that the drug-delivery systems are not sensitizers in themselves. Encapsulating the hydrophilic contact allergen potassium dichromate in all three drug-delivery systems did not affect the sensitizing capacity of potassium dichromate compared with control solutions. However, encapsulating the lipophilic contact allergen dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) in polycaprolactone reduced the sensitizing capacity to 1211 +/- 449 compared with liposomes (7602 +/- 2658) and in acetone: olive oil (4: 1) (5633 +/- 666). The same trend was observed for encapsulating isoeugenol in polycaprolactone (1100 +/- 406) compared with a formulation in acetone: olive oil (4491 +/- 819) and in liposomes (3668 +/- 950). Further, the size of DNCB-loaded liposomes did not affect the sensitizing properties. These results suggest that modern dermal drug-delivery systems may in some cases magnify or decrease the sensitizing capacity of the encapsulated contact allergen.