CHITOSAN LOADED MICROSPHERES OF TROPICAMIDE AS CONTROLLED RELEASE OF DRUG FOR OCULAR DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

Abstract

Ocular drug delivery via conventional eye drop is a convenient route of administration but it has serious limitations due to rapid clearance of the
formulation from the eye. This study aimed to prepare and evaluate the sustained/controlled release of tropicamide microspheres with chitosan to
increase ocular residence time of drug and also improve the bioavailability. The tropicamide loaded chitosan microspheres were prepared by ionic
gelation technique using different ratios of polymer i.e. chitosan and cross-linking polymer i.e. sodium TPP. Microspheres were optimized by
employing (22
) factorial design and evaluated for particle size, entrapment efficiency, surface morphology and drug release profile. The entrapment
efficiency was found to be higher with increase in the chitosan concentration. The increasing concentration of chitosan also showed the sustained
release effect on the drug release. The optimized formulation showed the smooth morphology and average particle size was found to be about
15µm.The in-vitro release profile of tropicamide loaded microspheres showed a sustained release pattern as compared to pure drug. The results
revealed that microspheres would be the promising candidates for enhancing the residence time by mucoadhesion which leads to enhancement of
bioavailability of the tropicamide drug.