Medium Molecular Weight Chitosan as a Carrier for Delivery of Lincomycin Hydrochloride from Intra-pocket Dental Film: Design, Development, in vitro and ex vivo Characterization

The purpose of investigation is to find out the potential of Medium Molecular Weight Chitosan (MMWCH) loaded with Lincomycin Hydrochloride (LNC) having pKa 7.6 and log p value 0.20 for treatment of periodontitis and gingivitis, prepared by using solvent casting technology in form of intra pocket dental film. Four sets of formulation were prepared and each set comprises of four formulations each. The formulations were evaluated for drug content uniformity, weight uniformity, thickness of patch, surface pH, moisture loss, swelling index, water vapor transmission rate, static in vitro release studies using diffusion cell, ex vivo flux study using diffusion cell by help of excised gum lining of goat, release kinetics and Akaike Information Criteria; goodness of fit (AIC) value determination. Excipient drug interaction was carried out by using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and by Thermo gravimetric Analysis (TGA)/Differential thermal analysis (DTA)/Derivative thermo gravimetric analysis (DTG) and this suggests that there is no drug excipient interaction occurs. The drug release studies show the sustained release without any burst effect for consecutive 5 days. Formulation R1, R2, R7, R8, R9, R10, R13 and R14 and follows the zero order release pattern and formulation R3, R4, R5, R6, R11, R12, R15 and R16 follows the Higuchi model because they have lower AIC value and higher r2 value. Formulation ER17, ER18, ER19 and ER20 is having the average flux of 1.0, 1.48, 1.35 and 1.45 mg/cm2 hr-1 respectively, and when compared statistically student’s paired t-test these all formulations are significantly different from each other.