The purpose of this review is to summarize essential biological, pharmaceutical, and clinical aspects in the field of topically applied medicines that may help scientists when trying to develop new topical medicines. After a brief history of topical drug delivery, a review of the structure and function of the skin and routes of drug absorption and their limitations is provided. The most prevalent diseases and current topical treatment approaches are then detailed, the organization of which reflects the key disease categories of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, microbial infections, skin cancers, and genetic skin diseases. The complexity of topical product development through to large-scale manufacturing along with recommended risk mitigation approaches are then highlighted. As such topical treatments are applied externally, patient preferences along with the challenges they invoke are then described, and finally the future of this field of drug delivery is discussed, with an emphasis on areas that are more likely to yield significant improvements over the topical medicines in current use or would expand the range of medicines and diseases treatable by this route of administration.

中文翻译：

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治疗皮肤病的局部应用疗法：过去、现在和未来


本综述的目的是总结局部应用药物领域的基本生物学、药学和临床方面，这些方面可能有助于科学家尝试开发新的局部药物。在简要介绍了局部给药的历史之后，对皮肤的结构和功能以及药物吸收途径及其局限性进行了回顾。然后详细介绍了最流行的疾病和当前的局部治疗方法，其组织反映了自身免疫和炎症性疾病、微生物感染、皮肤癌和遗传性皮肤病等关键疾病类别。然后强调了主题产品开发到大规模制造的复杂性以及推荐的风险缓解方法。由于此类局部治疗是外部应用的，因此描述了患者的偏好以及他们所面临的挑战，最后讨论了该药物输送领域的未来，重点是与局部药物相比更有可能产生显着改善的领域目前使用的药物或将扩大通过这种给药途径可治疗的药物和疾病的范围。