Transferosomes in Transdermal Therapy: Opportunities, Challenges, and Innovations

Transferosomes are extremely deformable vesicles that are similar to cell vesicles and allow controlled and site-specific delivery of drugs. Due to their special structure and composition, they can penetrate through the lipid matrix of the skin, increasing penetration of the drug and showing a potential means of transdermal drug delivery. This review intends to discuss the composition, merits, demerits, mechanism of action, and applications of transferosomes in drug delivery. Transferosomes may be prepared by different methodologies. These include rotary film evaporation, reverse-phase evaporation, ethanol injection, vortex-assisted sonication, and the freeze-thaw method. It has a number of advantages over traditional therapy, such as biocompatibility, improved drug penetration, and maximum drug entrapment efficiency. Nevertheless, they are also challenged by chemical instability and elevated production costs. The literature demonstrates a lack of thorough understanding of the optimization of transferosome formulations for different therapeutic agents. Future studies should address these challenges, enhancing the stability of transferosomes, and showing promise for the delivery of a wider range of drugs, including biologics and gene therapies. Transferosomes represent a promising strategy to overcoming the limitations of traditional transdermal drug delivery systems and hold significant potential for future advancements in the field. • Transferosomes are ultra-deformable vesicles capable of deep skin penetration for enhanced transdermal drug delivery. • They can be formulated using simple, scalable methods such as thin-film hydration and sonication. • Transferosomes provide high entrapment efficiency and improved bioavailability over conventional delivery systems. • Key challenges include chemical instability and high production costs, requiring further formulation optimization.