Abstract
A well-designed drug delivery platform improves the pharmacological properties of therapeutics. Here, we report a biodegradable interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) microbeads delivery technology developed by crosslinking a polymer blend of poly(vinyl alcohol), xanthan gum, and sodium alginate to enhance the solubility of poorly soluble drugs. The microbeads effectively improve the solubility of a model BCS Class IV drug, norfloxacin, known for its low solubility and low permeability. Differential scanning calorimetry, powdered X-ray diffractometry, and FT-IR data showed that the IPN microbeads solubilised and encapsulated the drug within the network. We found over 83% encapsulation efficiency for norfloxacin and this efficiency increases with the concentration of polymer. Ex vivo experiments using caprine intestine revealed that the IPN microbeads adhered to the intestinal epithelium, a mucoadhesive behaviour that could be beneficial to the drug pharmacokinetics while in vitro experiments in phosphate buffer show that the IPN enables significant drug release. We believe that these IPN microbeadsare an excellent drug delivery system to solubilise norfloxacin, ensure adhesion to the intestinal wall, thereby localising the drug release to enhance bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs.
