Mucoadhesive Microemulsion as a Nose-To-Brain (NTB) Transmucosal Drug Carrier

Author(s)

Himawan, A.

Author's Affiliation

Abstract

Nose-to-brain (NTB) delivery system is an interesting route to deliver drug substance directly to the brain via the nasal cavity. The unique anatomy of the nasal cavity region may let drug substance to bypass blood-brain-barrier (BBB) and enter the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Microemulsion (ME) is an isotropic mixture of oil, water, and surfactant/co-surfactant mixture which has been studied as a drug delivery system for transdermal and transmucosal preparation. Delivering drug via this route has various advantages, including bioavailability improvement and first-pass effect metabolism avoidance. Addition a mucoadhesive agent to a microemulsion-based formulation (Mucoadhesive Microemulsion/MME) has been studied to prolong the retaining time of transmucosal preparation, thus, increase its bioavailability. Drugs for Central Nervous System (CNS) disorder are the drug candidate studied for this delivery pathway. Characterization of prepared microemulsion including interaction study with Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, conductivity measurement, transmittance percentage measurement, determination of globule size, zeta potential measurement, polarizing microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), refractive index, viscosity, centrifugation, pH measurement. Nasal ciliotoxicity, mucoadhesive strength and in-situ gel forming capacity also should be determined to confirm its toxicity to nasal cilia and mucous membrane, ability to retain in mucosal membrane and gel forming temperature. Drug release from the MME can be studied by In-Vitro or Ex-Vivo modeling using a vertical diffusion apparatus. In vivo drug release and overall pharmacokinetics study can be performed with animal modeling using rats or rabbit. The radiolabeled intranasally administrated drug can be used to study its brain uptake and overall tissue distribution.

Keywords

Nose to Brain Delivery, Mucoadhesive Microemulsion, Intranasal Route, CNS Disorder

Cite This Article

Himawan, A. (2016). Mucoadhesive Microemulsion as a Nose-To-Brain (NTB) Transmucosal Drug Carrier, International Journal for Pharmaceutical Research Scholars (IJPRS), 5(2), 293-302.