CELLULOSE ETHER HYDROGELS AS POTENTIAL CARRIERS FOR PULSATILE DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

Hydrogels are cross-linked polymers with the capacity to bulge in an aqueous medium. Because of their extraordinary properties, these are utilized as brilliant drug delivery vehicles that particularly necessitate focusing on the drug to specific sites. On account of the eminent hydration and biocompatibility properties generally utilized in pharmaceutical field, especially cellulose derivatives. In oral medication, many advanced technologies are introduced. More recently pulsatile drug delivery system is meant for the release of drug followed by a predetermined lag time, which is an emerging approach in chronotherapeutics. In the current research work intended to formulate the pulsicapsules of miglitol by utilizing hydrogel plugs which were prepared by cellulose ethers like ethyl cellulose and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose in ratios of drug: polymer, i.e., 1:2, 1:3. Zero size capsule bodies were treated with formaldehyde to adjust the solubility of capsules and pulsicapsules were prepared by filling the bodies with three dosages of immediate release granules of miglitol which were separated by two hydrogel plugs and closed with an untreated cap. The assembled pulsi capsules were assessed for in-vitro drug release in three diverse dissolution media. From the results, HP8 formulation (with the hydrogel plug composition of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and dicalcium phosphate in 1:3 ratio) was optimized depending on the drug release pattern and predetermined lag time. At 40±2˚C/75±5% RH, accelerated stability studies were conducted and it showed no remarkable changes concluding that miglitol pulsice drug delivery system of asules was developed successfully.