Development of liquid-crystalline systems containing TiO2 nanoparticles for sun protection and controlled release of terpinem-4-ol

Abstract

The incidence of skin cancer in all the world grows exponentially, mainly due to the frequent exposition to ultraviolet radiation (UV). In this work, it will be developed multi-functional systems based on TiO2 nanoparticles that can act as sunscreen and as controlled release systems of molecules that are able to prevent and/or treat the skin cancer.As sunscreen, it will be used systems prepared by sol-gel process based on nanoparticles of TiO2, an inorganic sunscreen, photostable and with low dermal irritability. In a first stage of this work, it will be developed gels based on TiO2 nanoparticles with controlled size and surface in order to obtain systems capable to maintain the known sunscreen action of the TiO2 in formulations that are transparent when applied to the skin. In addition to this, due to the controlled surface area of these nanoparticles, it will be prepared cosmetic formulations which contain redispersed nanoparticles of xerogels based on TiO2. Moreover, it will be embedded antioxidants and molecules with anticancer action in these formulations obtained, in view to obtain a controlled release system of actives that prevent and/or treat the skin cancer.These systems will be characterized by rheology, SAXS and QELS and spectrophotometric methods (Raman, RMN) to evaluate the nanoscale structure. These systems will also be conducted to citotoxicity´s test "in vitro" and release´s test of the embedded molecules "in vitro".