Design and development of zolmitriptan niosomal in situ nasal gel for the treatment of migrain

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to development of Zolmitriptan (ZMT) niosomal in situ nasal gel formulation for migraine treatment. By intranasal route delivered drug to the central nervous system (CNS) through the olfactory lobes, which bypasses the first-pass metabolism and consequently enhances the bioavailability. Noisome of ZMT were prepared by using the lipid film hydration method. Optimized niosomal formulation was used to prepare in situ gel. The developed Noisomal formulations were characterized for vesicle size, shape, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency, drug content and in-vitro diffusion study, mucoadhesive strength, permeation study, FTIR, DSC and XRD studies. The FTIR and DSC studies predicted that there was no any interaction in drug and excipients. ZMT niosomes were showed particle size, Polydispersity index (PDI), Zeta potential, % entrapment efficiency and drug content, 149nm, 0.223, -28.9, 88.16±0.8 % and 96.23±1.2% respectively. In-vitro diffusion study of niosomes shows 96.23±0.7% at 8h. The permeation rate of in situ niosomes gel and the pure drug was about 98.56% and 79.46%, respectively. XRD & DSC studies were showed that reduce crystalinity in the formulations. The SEM images of niosomes were found spherical in shape to some extent showing particle size distribution. Thus, it can be concluded that developed ZMT niosomal in situ gel formulation can be considered as a promising system for which may reduce dose requirement, improve patient acceptability and efficient targeting drug delivery to the brain through the olfactory lobe for migraine treatment.