Researchers claim liquid salts deliver drugs through skin with reduced toxicity

Did you know that formulating drugs as liquid salts might provide a safe and efficient strategy for topical delivery of drugs that causes skin toxicity.

Researchers from the University of California have demonstrated a novel formulation of propranolol as a liquid salt which enables delivery through skin with reduced toxicity.

Researcher Samir Mitragotri said that Propranolol is positively charged which is a likely source of its toxicity. Shielding of this charge by association with a counter species in the liquid salt reduces its toxicity.

He added that their findings are broadly applicable to many charged drugs.

Researchers claim that this is the first study that reports the design of liquid salts to minimise skin toxicity. Such formulations can increase the spectrum of drugs that can be safely delivered via a transdermal patch.

Co-author Michael Zakrewsky said that an ideal drug liquid salt would need to permeate through the skin as an associated ion pair. Eventually, the drug and the counter ion must dissociate in blood to preserve drug's therapeutic efficacy.

He added that they show that these attributes can be balanced through careful selection of counter ions.

The study is published in the journal Technology.