Recent advancement of gelatin nanoparticles in drug and vaccine delivery.

Novel drug delivery system using nanoscale materials with a broad spectrum of applications provides a new therapeutic foundation for technological integration and innovation. Nanoparticles are suitable drug carrier for various routes of administration as well as rapid recognition by the immune system. Gelatin, the biological macromolecule is a versatile drug/vaccine delivery carrier in pharmaceutical field due to its biodegradable, biocompatible, non-antigenicity and low cost with easy availability. The surface of gelatin nanoparticles can be modified with site-specific ligands, cationized with amine derivatives or, coated with polyethyl glycols to achieve targeted and sustained release drug delivery. Compared to other colloidal carriers, gelatin nanoparticles are better stable in biological fluids to provide the desired controlled and sustained release of entrapped drug molecules. The current review highlights the different formulation aspects of gelatin nanoparticles which affect the particle characteristics like zeta potential, polydispersity index, entrapment efficacy and drug release properties. It has also given emphasis on the major applications of gelatin nanoparticles in drug and vaccine delivery, gene delivery to target tissues and nutraceutical delivery for improving the poor bioavailabity of bioactive phytonutrients.

Nonionic surfactant vesicles in ocular delivery: innovative approaches and perspectives.

With the recent advancement in the field of ocular therapy, drug delivery approaches have been elevated to a new concept in terms of nonionic surfactant vesicles (NSVs), that is, the ability to deliver the therapeutic agent to a patient in a staggered profile. However the major drawbacks of the conventional drug delivery system like lacking of permeability through ocular barrier and poor bioavailability of water soluble drugs have been overcome by the emergence of NSVs. The drug loaded NSVs (DNSVs) can be fabricated by simple and cost-effective techniques with improved physical stability and enhance bioavailability without blurring the vision. The increasing research interest surrounding this delivery system has widened the areas of pharmaceutics in particular with many more subdisciplines expected to coexist in the near future. This review gives a comprehensive emphasis on NSVs considerations, formulation approaches, physicochemical properties, fabrication techniques, and therapeutic significances of NSVs in the field of ocular delivery and also addresses the future development of modified NSVs.

Maltodextrin based proniosomes of nateglinide: bioavailability assessment.

The present study delineates the fabrication of maltodextrin based proniosomes of nateglinide and their potential as controlled delivery system for diabetic therapy. New Zealand albino male rabbits have been used as animal model for in vivo study. To evaluate the bioavailability of nateglinide proniosome, a rapid, simple and sensitive HPLC method with photodiode array detection was developed and validated to determine nateglinide in rabbit plasma. Chromatographic separation was achieved by a reverse phase C18 column using a mixture of acetonitrile:methanol:10mM phosphate buffer (pH 3.5) in the ratio of 56:14:30 (%v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0ml/min and quantified based on drug/IS peak area ratios. Gliclazide was used as the internal standard. The intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations of four tested concentrations were below 2%. The nateglinide proniosome formulation exhibited significantly higher plasma concentration than those of pure drug. The study revealed that the rate and extent of absorption of nateglinide from the proniosomal formulation was comparatively enhanced that of pure drug. Maltodextrin based proniosomes of nateglinide is not only simple and cost efficient delivery but also offers a useful and promising carrier for diabetic therapy through oral administration.

Development and in vitro/in vivo evaluation of controlled release provesicles of a nateglinide-maltodextrin complex.

The aim of this study was to characterize the provesicle formulation of nateglinide (NTG) to facilitate the development of a novel controlled release system of NTG with improved efficacy and oral bioavailability compared to the currently marketed NTG formulation (Glinate™ 60). NTG provesicles were prepared by a slurry method using the non-ionic surfactant, Span 60 (SP), and cholesterol (CH) as vesicle forming agents and maltodextrin as a coated carrier. Multilamellar niosomes with narrow size distribution were shown to be successfully prepared by means of dynamic laser scattering (DLS) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The absence of drug-excipient interactions was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. In vitro release of NTG in different dissolution media was improved compared to pure drug. A goat intestinal permeation study revealed that the provesicular formulation (F4) with an SP:CH ratio of 5:5 gave higher cumulative amount of drug permeated at 48 h compared to Glinate™ 60 and control. A pharmacodynamic study in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats confirmed that formulation F4 significantly (P<0.05) reduced blood glucose levels in comparison to Glinate 60. Overall the results show that controlled release NTG provesicles offer a useful and promising oral delivery system for the treatment of type II diabetes.