Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
  • 2 Bachelor of Pharmacy Student, School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Life sciences, School of Pharmacy, International Medical University-Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
  • 4 School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Taylor's University, Subang Jaya 47500, Malaysia
  • 5 Centre for Drug Delivery Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, Kuala Lumpur 50300, Malaysia
Molecules, 2021 May 05;26(9).
PMID: 34062995 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26092704

Abstract

A single ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes inflammation of the colonic mucosa at the distal colon and rectum. The mainstay therapy involves anti-inflammatory immunosuppression based on the disease location and severity. The disadvantages of using systemic corticosteroids for UC treatment is the amplified risk of malignancies and infections. Therefore, topical treatments are safer as they have fewer systemic side effects due to less systemic exposure. In this context, pH sensitive and enzymatically triggered hydrogel of pectin (PC) and polyacrylamide (PAM) has been developed to facilitate colon-targeted delivery of budesonide (BUD) for the treatment of UC. The hydrogels were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), swelling ratio, and drug release. FT-IR spectroscopy confirmed the grafting as well loading of BUD in hydrogel. XRD showed the amorphous nature of hydrogel and increment in crystallinity after drug loading. On the other hand, SEM showed that the hydrogels exhibited a highly porous morphology, which is suitable for drug loading and also demonstrated a pH-responsive swelling behaviour, with decreased swelling in acidic media. The in-vitro release of BUD from the hydrogel exhibited a sustained release behaviour with non-ficken diffusion mechanism. The model that fitted best for BUD released was the Higuchi kinetic model. It was concluded that enzyme/pH dual-sensitive hydrogels are an effective colon-targeted delivery system for UC.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.