Gel formulations set to be potential new treatments
Advances in gel formulations look set to deliver effective treatments for a variety of diseases. Scientists in India have developed a gel
that is taken orally and which might be able to target diseases currently
requiring drugs delivered by injection.
The research, due to be published in the journal Polymer International,
suggests the gel could offer a way of treating diabetes, ulcerative colitis,
Crohn’s disease, bowel cancer, constipation and some infections.
Sunil Bajpai and Seema Dubey, from the Polymer Research Laboratory in
Jabalpur, have produced a terpolymeric gel system into which a drug can
be loaded. The hydrogel has been designed so that it passes through the
stomach protecting the drug from stomach acids. They show that 56 per
cent of the drug is released further down the gastrointestinal tract
in the colon when the gel swells in response to the alkaline pH.
“The terpolymeric hydrogel system studied by our team provides
an alternative to the parenteral medication of insulin. It is now necessary
to carry
out in vivo studies of this hydrogel system so that it could be further
modified to produce oral delivery pills,” said Dr Bajpai.
The scientists put vitamin B2 in the hydrogel and studied the gel’s
releasing capacity in different pH conditions.
Meanwhile, the drug discovery company Henderson Morley reported developments
from another gel formulation last week. The delivery system, produced
in collaboration with researchers at the Welsh School of Pharmacy is
being used to deliver antiviral therapies transdermally.
The technology is known as ionic contra viral therapy (ICVT) and has
resulted in a formulation that can contain stable antiviral drugs at
high concentrations. The formulation also allows the drugs to be released
easily, as well as pass readily through skin.
Further formulation work reported by the company has resulted in a novel
adhesive dressing, currently the subject of a patent application. |
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