Gellan gum fluid gels for topical administration of diclofenac

Mohammed H. Mahdi, Barbara R. Conway, Thomas Mills, Alan M. Smith*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
210 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Diclofenac topical formulations are often preferred for drug administration to patients who experience serious GIT problems. Absorption of the drug through the skin, however, can be challenging due to the natural protective feature of the stratum corneum (SC). In this article, fluid gels prepared from gellan gum were explored as a topical drug delivery vehicle. Rheological analysis of the formulations showed that it was possible to produce a topical gel with a viscosity and the mechanical strength similar to that of the commercially available Voltaren® gel using 1% w/w of a 50:50 low acyl/high acyl (LA/HA) gellan blend. Soft-tribology was used to assess the lubrication properties of gellan fluid gels. The lubrication of the gellan gum fluid gel formulations at high rubbing speeds was similar to the lubrication of the Voltaren® gel. The use of gellan gum dramatically increased skin permeation of diclofenac when compared with the commercially available formulation and could be controlled by changing the gellan gum concentration and/or sodium ion concentration in the formulation. This study highlights the potential use of fluid gels that can be easily tuned to have physical properties suitable for topical formulations with the added advantage of increasing drug permeation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)535-542
Number of pages8
JournalInternational Journal of Pharmaceutics
Volume515
Issue number1-2
Early online date24 Oct 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Dec 2016

Keywords

  • Diclofenac
  • Fluid gel
  • Gellan gum
  • Rheology
  • Skin permeation
  • Topical
  • Tribology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pharmaceutical Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Gellan gum fluid gels for topical administration of diclofenac'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this