Abstract
Objectives: The aim of the present explorative study was to prepare and optimize finasteride loaded topical gel formulations by using three factor [propylene glycol (PG), Tween® 80, and sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS)], five level central composite design.
Results: Optimized finasteride topical gel formulation (F4), containing PG, Tween® 80, and SLS in a concentration of 0.8 mg, 0.4 mg and 0.2 mg, respectively, showed 6-fold higher values of cumulative drug release, flux, partition coefficient, input rate, lag time, and diffusion coefficient, when compared to control formulation without permeation enhancer.
Conclusion: Finally, it can be concluded that finasteride permeation was enhanced by PG, tween® 80 and SLS individually, while in combination only PG along with tween® 80 had synergistic and more pronounced effect on flux, permeability coefficient and input rate while antagonistic effect on lag time and diffusion coefficient was observed.
Keywords: Finasteride, topical gel, optimization, response surface methodology, central composite design, synergistic.
Graphical Abstract