Preparation and characterization of sumatriptan loaded solid lipid nanoparticles for transdermal delivery

Over the past decade, there has been great attention paid to the development of transdermal delivery systems for sumatriptan, the most commonly prescribed drug for the treatment of migraine headaches. Given the various gastrointestinal side effects of sumatriptan in oral administration and low bioavailability in nasal dosage forms, focus has been on transdermal delivery. The main purpose of this study was to prepare and assess a transdermal formulation of sumatriptan, based on solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs), to eliminate the undesirable side effects and also improve its percutaneous permeation rate. Topical gel of sumatriptan loaded SLNs was also formulated with respective characteristics assessed. Sumatriptan loaded SLNs were prepared using solvent diffusion/evaporation method. Particle size, entrapment efficiency, in vitro release study and skin permeation analysis of sumatriptan were performed to characterize the prepared SLNs. Then, sumatriptan loaded SLNs were incorporated in a gel formulation as a topical delivery system to assess the percutaneous permeation of sumatriptan. Different compositional and technical variables were considered to optimize the formulation using the design of experiment and drug release performance from the best SLN formulation was evaluated. The results indicated that sumatriptan loaded SLN formulation exhibited increased skin permeation of the drug relative to sumatriptan conventional gel formulation.