Sayantan Mukhopadhyay

In-situ gelling system is a process in which a solution form converted into the gel form after the formulation has been applied at the site. In-situ gel is helpful to produce sustained release of drug. Fluoxetine HCl is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. The current study deals with the preparation, evaluation and optimization of In-situ gel of Fluoxetine HCl for intranasal delivery for the effective treatment of depression. The In-situ gel of Fluxetine HCl was prepared by cold-technique and evaluated for its physical appearance, viscosity, Gel forming temperature, Melting temperature, pH, Spreadability, Swelling index, Drug content and In-vitro release study. In-vitro drug release for optimized formulation was found to be 95.55% of F2 and pH, Drug content, Spreadability, Gelling temperature, Melting temperature were found to be 6.3, 97.6%, 8.0 gmcm/sec, 330C, 790C respectively. The study clearly demonstrated that the Fluoxetine HCl can be successfully delivered through nasal route by preparing in-situ gel. Gel is non-irritating when delivered through nasal route.

The aim of present work was to develop a emulgel for the topical delivery system which is useful in the treatment of vaginal fungal infection. Emulgels having advantage of both emulsion & gels which act as a controlled drug delivery system for topically applied drugs. The Gel in formulations were prepared by dispersing Carbopol 934 & Carbapole 940 in purified water. Then oil phase & aqueous phase of the emulsion were prepared. Both the oily and aqueous phases were heated separately & then oily phase were added to the aqueous phase. add Glutaraldehyde in during of mixing of gel and emulsion in ratio 1:1 to obtain the emulgel. Prepared emulgels was investigated for different parameters. All the prepared emulgels showed acceptable physical properties concerning colour, viscosity, melting point, pH value, and spreadability. The results of in-vitro drug release showed that carbopol 934 was the formula of choice as it showed better drug release & antifungal activity. FTIR studies revealed that drug and all excipients are compatible. The data obtained from in- vitro permeation studies was treated by various conventional mathematical models (zero order, first order, Higuchi and Korsmeyer- peppa’s) to determine the release mechanism from the designed emulgel formulations. Selection of a suitable release model was based on the values of R2 (correlation coefficient), k (release constant) obtained from the curve fitting of release data. It was found that all the formulations follows the first order kinetics. The regression coefficients for the all formulations F1 to F4 of Higuchi plot was found to be almost linear. Key words: Emulgel, tioconazole, antifungal drug, topical drug delivery.

  Many therapeutic drugs are difficult to reach the central nervous system (CNS) from the systemic blood circulation because the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCSFB) form a very effective barrier which prevents most molecules from passing through. BBB allows a selective entry of nutrients and minerals across it and limits the entry of foreign substances like drugs as well as neuropharmaceutical agents. To bypass BBB, drugs can be delivered through olfactory region for nose-to-brain targeting. . Intranasal administration of therapeutic agents (i.e., drug delivery via the nose) offers several advantages over oral, intravenous, and other routes of administration. Drugs can be rapidly absorbed through the large surface area of the nasal mucosa. Intranasal delivery is also non-invasive and essentially painless.  This review provides an overview of strategies to improve the drug delivery to the brain via the nasal mucosa and recent advances in the field.