Lipid Nanocarriers in Photodynamic Therapy of Skin Disease: A Comprehensive Overview

Abstract

The skin is a surface human organ with the largest surface area. Its epidermal barrier plays a non-negligible role in protecting the human body. Skin diseases, such as infections, inflammations, and even skin cancers, tremendously affect humans. Traditional skin inflammations are mainly treated by transdermal drug delivery, which is considered to be low concentrated, poor targeted, and other shortcomings. The traditional therapies for skin cancer includes surgery and chemotherapy. However, surgery may risk of cancer metastasis, while chemotherapy causes severe damage to other organs of human body. In this context, the PDT (Photodynamic Therapy) is developed as a new treatment. With advantages of simplicity, efficiency, and few side effects, it thus has high research and application prospects in treating cancers and bacterial infections. The liposome, as the earliest drug delivering system, functioned as raising the stability of drugs, high biological availability, controllable drug release, long circulation in the blood, selective distribution in organs or tissues, small total dosage, and minimal toxicity and side effects. It is thus widely applied to PDT. This paper summarizes the fields of applying the lipid-nanocarrier system to treating skin diseases with PDT and the progress in relevant studies.