RECENT ADVANCES IN TRANSFEROSOME-BASED NASAL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS: A DECADE IN REVIEW (2015–2025)

Kanika, Dr. Naresh Singh Gill, Amandeep Kaur, Anmol Thakur*

ABSTRACT

Intranasal drug delivery has emerged as a non invasive and clinically attractive route for both systemic and central nervous system (CNS) targeted therapy, largely because it bypasses hepatic first pass metabolism and, via the olfactory and trigeminal neural pathways, offers a route that circumvents the blood brain barrier. Among the nanocarriers explored for this purpose, transferosomes (also spelled transfersomes) ultra deformable, edge activator modified phospholipid vesicles first described by Cevc and Blume for transdermal use have attracted growing interest over the last decade as vehicles for nose to brain and local nasal delivery. Their elastic bilayer allows them to squeeze through nasal mucus and paracellular pores, improve mucoadhesion when incorporated into in situ gels, protect labile drugs, and enhance both entrapment efficiency and permeation relative to conventional liposomes. This review synthesises advances reported between 2015 and 2025 in transferosome composition, fabrication, characterization, and their nasal application across neurodegenerative disease, psychiatric disorders, migraine, infection, oncology, and antiviral therapy, with a focus on formulation design (thin film hydration, reverse phase evaporation, and Box–Behnken/quality by design optimisation), in-situ gelling strategies, and in vivo pharmacokinetic/brain targeting outcomes such as drug targeting efficiency (DTE%) and direct transport percentage (DTP%). Persistent translational challenges including scale up, long term physical stability, standardisation of deformability testing, and regulatory ambiguity are also discussed, together with emerging directions such as hybrid transferosomal systems, stimuli responsive gels, and surface functionalization for olfactory targeting.

Keywords: Transferosomes, Nasal Drug Delivery, Nose To Brain Delivery, Ultra Deformable Vesicles, In-Situ Gel, Edge Activator, CNS Targeting.