Jayant K. Pandit

Controlled release formulations in neurology practice

Recently, controlled release (CR) pharmaceutical products have become a very useful tool in medical practice, offering a wide range of actual and perceived advantages to the patient. A CR product requires numerous considerations, like drugs suitable for CR formulations, techniques of fabrication and evaluation, factors affecting bioavailability of the parent drug, before it can actually be claimed to provide the purported benefits. Such complex considerations fall under the domain of pharmaceutical experts and clinicians, naturally, are not sufficiently aware and updated about these products and their biological consequences. Various CR formulations used in neurological practice are discussed in the present review. The clinical studies of the conventional and CR dosage form of the drugs used in neurology practice reflect the advantages of prescribing CR formulations over the conventional dosage forms.

Rifabutin loaded floating gellan gum beads: In vitro and in vivo evaluation

Rifabutin loaded floating gellan gum beads were prepared by ionotropic gelation in acidic medium. Buoyancy to the beads was attributed to the use of gas-generating agent, which produced an extremely porous internal structure lighter than gastric juice. Beads exhibited excellent buoyancy and remained buoyant up to 18 h. Drug incorporation efficiency of the beads was found to be dependent on the concentration of Ca and gellan gum whereas drug release was dependent only on Ca concentration. When administered orally to albino rats, beads floated on the gastric juice and released the drug into the stomach. Furthermore, blood samples were withdrawn periodically and rifabutin concentrations in the blood were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Data obtained in this study demonstrated that floating beads bearing rifabutin were capable of stomach specific delivery of drug for longer period with increased bioavailability compared to pure drug as well as with non-floating drug containing beads. Overall, gellan gum loaded floating beads have a promising potential to treat multidrug resistant Helicobacter pylori infection.