Abstract

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ON FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF MUCOADHESIVE MICROSPHERES OF FEXOFENADINE FOR NASAL DELIVERY

*Shweta Srivastava and Jaideo Panday

ABSTRACT

The most important criteria for developing novel drug delivery system are to achieve clinical efficacy. In recent year, Conventional dosage forms may be unsatisfactory due to their poor residence time in the nasal cavity. Mucoadhesive polymer like chitosan can be employed to increase the residence time of formulation in the nasal cavity.The aim of present study was to develop mucoadhesive microspheres of Fexofenadine for nasal delivery which belongs to second generation antihistamine use in the treatment of allergy and rhinitis.Chitosan microspheres of Fexofenadine were prepared by w/o emulsion cross linking method based on glutaraldehyde crosslinking. Six different formulations were developed. The mucoadhesive microspheres were evaluated for particle size analysis, drug polymer interaction (FTIR) study, production yield, encapsulation efficiency, swelling index, In-vitro mucoadhesion, surface morphology, and stability study. Results show that as the concentration of polymer increases it affects the particle size, production yield, encapsulation efficiency, swelling index, in-vitro mucoadhesion and in-vitro drug release of mucoadhesive microspheres. Among all the formulation, formulation F6 displayed the best result whose particle size 11-100 μm, production yield 87.5%, encapsulation efficiency 79%, swelling index 1.20 mg, in-vitro mucoadhesion 83%, in-vitro drug release is 86.62% after 6 hrs. FTIR data indicate that there was no drug interaction between the drug and polymer used. All formulation show zero order release kinetics, and stability study indicates that all formulation were more stable at 25±2˚C& 60±5% RH. Results of our present study suggest that the mucoadhesive microspheres of Fexofenadine prepared successfully by w/o emulsion cross linking method. The formulated mucoadhesive microspheres seem to be potential candidate as intranasal controlled drug delivery system for the treatment of allergy and rhinitis. Hence, this formulation can be considered as an alternative for conventional and parentral dosage forms.

Keywords: Chitosan microspheres, Emulsion crosslinking, Fexofenadine, Glutaraldehyde, Nasal delivery.