Theoretical and experimental studies on theophylline release from hydrophilic alginate nanoparticles

Deepa Thomas,M S Latha,K Kurien Thomas,Vinish V Nair

doi:10.1186/s43094-019-0002-0

Abstract

BackgroundMathematical modelling may be able to reduce the number of in vitro experiments and provide an insight into the elementary physical and chemical mechanisms that regulate the rate and degree of drug release. The aim of the present examination was to develop a simple mathematical model to portray drug release from the alginate-type hydrophilic matrix, taking into account the Fickian diffusion of drug and swelling of the matrix using theophylline as the model drug.ResultsThe nanoparticles show a remarkable swelling in the simulated intestinal fluid. The theoretical drug release values were validated with experimental values by considering diffusion and diffusion with swelling. The experimental value fitted well with the theoretical value predicted based on diffusion. It was found that after 3 h, the entire drug release followed a pure diffusion transport.ConclusionsThe numerical model was found to be sufficiently accurate in guessing the drug release from the alginate matrix. The developed model could be extended to quantitatively prognosticate the drug release from hydrophilic spherical matrices.

Highlights

Mathematical modelling may be able to reduce the number of in vitro experiments and provide an insight into the elementary physical and chemical mechanisms that regulate the rate and degree of drug release
The goal of the current study is to develop a simple mathematical model to describe the drug release from the alginate-type hydrophilic matrix, considering the Fickian diffusion of drugs and swelling of the matrix
The kinetics and mechanism of drug release was greatly dependant on the swelling nature of the drug carrier

Summary

Introduction

Mathematical modelling may be able to reduce the number of in vitro experiments and provide an insight into the elementary physical and chemical mechanisms that regulate the rate and degree of drug release. Drug delivery systems have received considerable attention [1,2,3,4] These systems are intended to offer controlled administration of the pharmaceutical compound to keep their concentration within the therapeutic range. They help to reduce the number of drug dosages, initial drug concentration, and side effects due to the unspecific systemic distribution of drugs [5,6,7]. In vitro experiments with varying parameters are required to optimize the device design

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