Relevance of topical application of minoxidil laden nano-lipid for hair growth enhancement

Practically, all patients treated with Minoxidil (MXD) reported experiencing hypertrichosis, even though the original intended usage of the drug was the treatment of hypertension. This limitation supports the potential of repurposing MXD as a topical agent for the treatment of hair loss. Accordingly, the outset of the current study was to exploit the cutaneous influence of MXD and limit the drawbacks of conventional available dosage forms. This could be achieved via developing a nanocarrier, mainly; nanoemulsion (NE) for transdermal delivery of MXD. Therefore, several NEs were prepared containing MXD and optimized according to their particle size and in vitro release study using Response Surface Methodology. The optimized formulation was examined for its organoleptic properties, pH, viscosity, and drug content. Moreover, Morphology, kinetic study was investigated a long with the stability testing upon keeping in two distinct settings: room temperature and refrigerator for 12 months. Eventually, the in vivo hair growth rate was monitored and documented for 28 days in pretreated mice. The developed MXD-NEs were developed and optimized using Box Behnken Design software to obtain the most desired formula. The optimized MXD-NE demonstrated a nanosize (83.1 nm) and performs a successful in vitro release (75.6%) over a period of 6 h. Additionally, it showed ideal physical properties with pH (5.9), viscosity (26.7 cP), and drug content (99.4%). The droplets in the formula seemed to be spherical. The formula was stable when preserved for 12 months at both applied conditions. Finally, the formula demonstrated significant faster rate of hair growth that mostly owed to the value of nanocarrier in delivering drug into follicular hairs.