Therapeutic treatment strategies for the management of onychomycosis: a patent perspective

ABSTRACTIntroduction Onychomycosis, a multifactorial fungal infection of the nails, shows a global prevalence of about 5.5% and is responsible for 50% of all nail infections. To develop effective management strategies, it is necessary to understand the etiology, pathophysiology, and risk factors of onychomycosis. Oral route of drug delivery is one of the routes utilized to deliver anti-fungal agents, but, has its own limitations like longer duration of treatment, increased adverse effects, and potential for drug interaction. The ungual route has received greater attention due to its localized, non- invasive action and improved patient compliance.Areas covered This review comprehensively discusses conventional onychomycosis therapies and patented novel drug delivery systems for the management of onychomycosis including chemical permeation enhancers, non-particulate drug delivery systems, penetration enhancing devices etc., Databases such as PubMed, ResearchGate, and Google Patents were searched by using the keywords onychomycosis and trans-ungual drug deliveryExpert opinion Enormous research has been conducted and is still ongoing to find the best possible novel drug delivery system for onychomycosis management. Approaches like incorporation of herbal constituents in nano-formulations, inkjet printing, laser devices, iontophoretic techniques, etc. can be employed to make safe and effective drug delivery systems which are regulatory compliant.KEYWORDS: Onychomycosisungual routefungal nail infectionconventional onychomycosis therapiespatented novel drug delivery systems Article highlights Onychomycosis is a multifactorial fungal infection affecting the nails.Structural, Physicochemical and Diseased state are the common barriers in trans-ungual drug delivery.Nail avulsion and oral and topical therapy are conventional methods to treat onychomycosis.Novel strategies comprise of chemical penetration enhancers, nano particles, nail lacquers, nail polishes, films, gels and some devices.Declaration of interestsThe authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.Reviewer disclosuresPeer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to discloseAuthor contribution statementSnigdha: Conceptualization, Methodology, and Investigation. Sanshita: Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing-Original draft, Writing -Review and Editing. Inderbir Singh: Visualization, Supervision and Project administrations.AcknowledgmentsThe authors gratefully acknowledge Chitkara College of Pharmacy, Chitkara University, Punjab, India, for support and institutional facilities. The authors would also like to acknowledge the fact that Figures 1 and 2 have been Created with BioRender.com.Additional informationFundingThis paper was not funded.