Design and Characterization of Nicotine Polacrilex-Loaded Cubosomal Nanogel for Enhanced Topical Drug Delivery

The effective encapsulation of hydrophilic and lipophilic medications is made possible by cubosomes, which are nanostructured lipid carriers with a bicontinuous cubic liquid crystalline structure. Nicotine Polacrilex-loaded cubosomal Nanogel was designed and characterized in this study to improve topical drug delivery. Glyceryl monooleate (GMO) was used as the lipid and Poloxamer 407 as the stabilizer in the top-down method of creating cubosomes. The optimized cubosomal dispersion (NP3) demonstrated acceptable stability and nanoscale size with a zeta potential of -15.57 mV, a particle size of 134.6 nm, Drug content of nanogel of 91.22+ 0.34% and a high entrapment efficiency of 90.71 + 0.42%. A cubosomal Nanogel formulation was created by combining the optimized dispersion with Carbopol 934 gel base. The produced gel had a smooth appearance, good homogeneity, a suitable viscosity (12358 + 6.12 cps), an acceptable pH (6.52 + 0.59), and a satisfactory spreadability (17.963 + 0.842 g·cm/sec). Diffusion-controlled drug release was indicated by Franz diffusion cell in vitro drug release studies, which showed sustained release behavior for up to 6 hours after Higuchi diffusion kinetics (R2 = 0.9799). Ultimately, the Nicotine Polacrilex-loaded cubosomal Nanogel showed promise as a topical drug delivery system with sustained release. Keywords: Nicotine Polacrilex, Cubosomes, Topical drug delivery, Carbopol Nanogel, Sustained release