Abstract
Pharmaceutical research and development aims to design products with ensured safety, quality, and efficacy to treat disease. To make the process more rational, coherent, efficient, and cost-effective, the field of Pharmaceutical Materials Science has emerged as the systematic study of the physicochemical properties and behavior of materials of pharmaceutical interest in relation to product performance. The oral route is the most patient preferred for drug administration. The presence of a mucus layer that covers the entire gastrointestinal tract has been exploited to expand the use of the oral route by developing a mucoadhesive drug delivery system that showed a prolonged residence time. Alginic acid and sodium and potassium alginates have emerged as one of the most extensively explored mucoadhesive biomaterials owing to very good cytocompatibility and biocompatibility, biodegradation, sol-gel transition properties, and chemical versatility that make possible further modifications to tailor their properties. The present review overviews the most relevant applications of alginate microparticles and nanoparticles for drug administration by the oral route and discusses the perspectives of this biomaterial in the future.
Highlights
Pharmaceutical research and development aims to design products with ensured safety, quality, and efficacy to treat disease
Owing to very good biocompatibility and approval by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA) as food additive, ALG has gained a preferential place among pharmaceutical excipients for the development of advanced drug delivery systems for mucosal administration
Research on ALG microparticles has been more profuse with a broad spectrum of production methods that range from simple ionotropic gelation to more complex equipment to control size and size distribution and to ensure reproducibility and scale up
Summary
Pharmaceutical research and development aims to design products with ensured safety, quality, and efficacy to treat disease. Conferring the mucus well defined rheology, film formation capacity and adhesiveness [15] These anatomical features have been exploited to expand the use of the oral route. In this context, a broad spectrum of pharmaceutical products that incorporate natural, synthetic, and semisynthetic mucoadhesive excipients have been developed. A broad spectrum of pharmaceutical products that incorporate natural, synthetic, and semisynthetic mucoadhesive excipients have been developed These excipients, apart from being pharmacologically inert, are expected to establish an intimate interaction with the gastrointestinal mucus and to govern the performance of the drug delivery system upon administration. The present spotlight paper reviews the most relevant applications of ALG microparticles and nanoparticles for drug administration by the oral route
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
