Treatment of Basal Cell Carcinoma Via Binary Ethosomes of Vismodegib: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies.

Vismodegib (VMD) is a hedgehog inhibitor which indicated for basal cell skin cancer (BCC). This work focuses on investigating the influence of isopropyl alcohol additive for topical delivering and targeting of VMD-loaded binary ethosomes for BCC treatment. Different binary ethosome formulae were prepared based on Box-Behnken design using different concentrations of phospholipid (A), cholesterol (B) and isopropyl alcohol/total alcohol ratio (C). The prepared formulae were characterized for %entrapment efficiency (R₁), vesicle size (R₂), %release (R₃) and steady-state flux (R₄). Increasing A, B and C resulted in significant increase of R₁ and R₂ and significant decrease of R₃ and R₄. The optimization was achieved and the optimum formula was selected to investigate its anti-tumour efficacy in vivo. The optimum formula showed a localized VMD and consequently a significant anti-tumour activity compared with oral VMD. Briefly, VMD-loaded binary ethosome gel could be an effective treatment of BCC with lower side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]