Current Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences

56-60

Authors: Deepti Singh, Prabodh Shukla, Padmini Shukla

Today about 74% of drugs are taken orally and are found not to be as effective as desired. To improve such characters transdermal drug delivery system was emerged. The transdermal route has numerous advantages over the more traditional drug delivery routes. Tablets and injections have been the traditional way to take medications; new options are becoming increasingly popular. One highly successful alternative delivery method is the transdermal. Innovations in the area of drug delivery are taking place at a much faster pace as compared to the last two decades. Transdermal delivery is emerging as the biggest application target for these agents, however, the skin is extremely efficient at keeping out such large molecular weight compounds and therapeutic levels are never going to be realistically achieved by passive absorption. Physical enhancement mechanisms including: iontophoresis, electroporation, ultrasound, photomechanical waves, microneedles and jet-propelled particles are emerging as solutions to this topical delivery.

69-72

Authors: Sneha Golani, Garima Jain, Arvind Jadon ,Atul Kaushik

In recent year there is a growing interest in nutraceuticals which provide health benefit and arealternative to modern medicine. Nutrients, functional food & dietary supplements are majorconstituents of nutraceuticals which make them instrumental in maintaining health, act againstvarious disease condition and thus promote the quality of life. Nutraceuticals hold promise inclinical therapy as they have the potential to significantly reduce the risk of side effectsassociated with therapy along with reducing the health care cost. Nutraceuticals have receivedconsiderable interest because of their presumed safety and potential nutritional and therapeuticeffects”. Nutraceuticals are medicinal foods that play a role in maintaining well being,enhancing health, modulating immunity and thereby preventing as well as treating specificdiseases. The ability of nutraceuticals to positively influence cardiovascular risk factors shouldbe recognized as an enormous opportunity in the treatment of a highly prevalent disease. Theydo not easily fall into the legal category of food and drug and often inhabit a grey area betweenthe two. Risk of toxicity or adverse effect of drugs led us to consider safer nutraceuticals andfunctional food based approaches for the health management. Recent improvements in theidentification and standardization of botanical materials, coupled with screening by human cellline and gene expression-directed fractionation, are expected to expedite the development ofnew nutraceuticals and drugs. These will afford an immediate benefit to the rapidly emergingalternative, complementary, and integrated healthcare practices. It is also hoped that thenutraceuticals industries and regulatory agencies will work together to prevent the ultimate costof new drug development from becoming prohibitive.

81-90

Authors: Vijay K. Nandagiri, Clara Muttu, Jacqueline Daly, Zeibun Ramtoola, Gianluca Ciardelli, Franco Maria Montevecchi

Simvastatin has been reported to promote osteoblastic activity and inhibit osteoclastic activity.The successful use of simvastatin to promote in vivo bone formation depends on the localconcentration, and there have been continuous efforts to find an appropriate delivery system forlocal delivery. Controlled drug delivery approaches based on microparticles could be a promisingapproach for sustained-localized delivery of simvastatin. In this study, simvastatin-loaded PLGAmicroparticles were prepared by using a modified single emulsion-solvent evaporation method.Uniform, spherical simvastatin loaded PLGA microparticles of size below 10μm were producedby adopting three different drug polymer ratios such as 1:40, 1:20 and 1:10 with encapsulationefficiency above 85%w/w irrespective to the drug polymer ratio and maximum simvastatinloading within PLGA microparticles was observed at drug polymer ratio of 1:10. Two stagerelease of simvastatin from microparticles was observed for 45 days, illustrating a controlledrelease. Simvastatin loaded PLGA microparticles are compatible with hFOB cells and induced in vitro bio-mineralization during 11 days treatment. These studies illustrate the feasibility ofachieving local delivery of simvastatin to induce in vivo bone formation activity by suitablyengrafting simvastatin loaded microparticles within porous scaffolds.

101-108

Authors: Praveen K. Jain, M.L. Kori

Oral mucositis is a recurrent and potentially severe complications caused by chemotherapy. L-glutamine is considerably reduced the duration and severity of oral mucosa during radiotherapy. Formulation containing L-glutamine reduces this side effect. Mucoadhesive hydrogel formulation can deliver the L-glutamine in the buccal cavity in effective concentration. Hydrogel formulations of L-glutamine were prepared using various concentrations of Carbopol 934 NF, Na CMC, HPMC (K-15) and PEG-400 as base and constant concentration of methyl paraben, glycerin, sodiumglycocholate as penetrating enhancer. The prepared hydrogel were evaluated for swelling hydration, matrix erosion, drug release, mucoadhesion and shear stress. The formulation containing Carbopol 934 NF (CP-4) has shown more than 80% drug release in 4 hr, which indicate the sustained release behavior is in the rate controlled manner and which adhere to the buccal cavity for upto 6 hr. Stability study indicate that the hydrogel is stable upto 40oC. The formed hydrogel may well tolerable, comfortable, non-irritant, flexible and protective to wounded surface.

115-117

Authors: K. Pradeep Kumar, M. Prasantha Kumari

Seventeen cultures of phytase producing fungi were isolated from different leguminous soil samples. Among these PF-3 exhibited maximum phytase activity. Studies were carried out to optimize the physical and chemical parameters. The optimum productivity of phytase was achieved with optimized process parameter such as Calcium phytate (0.5%) as carbon source, (NH4)2 SO4 (0.1%) as nitrogen source, agitation speeds at 160 rpm, Tween-80 at (0.5%v/v) as a surfactant, incubation temperature of 300C, initial pH of 6, incubation period of 4 days, 5% inoculum level. The maximum production of phytase was under the optimized conditions an increase the yield of 1.63 times.