Interpenetrating polymer network hydrogel membranes of Karayagum and sodium alginate for control release of flutamide drug

Abstract

Flutamide (FLT) is a potent non-steroidal antiandrogen drug primarily used in palliative treatment of prostate cancer that inhibits androgen uptake and / or nuclear binding of androgen in target tissue. The present study gives, the experimental results on the successful encapsulation of Flutamide drug using Sodium Alginate (SA)/ Karaya gum (KG)) blend hydrogel membranes as controlled release (CR) polymer matrices. The Flutamide-containing polymer blend hydrogel membranes have been prepared by changing the experimental variables such as KG, SA and drug content by solution casting evaporation method. The membranes were characterized by swelling studies, FTIR, DSC, XRD, and SEM studies. The swelling results indicated that swelling of polymer membranes decrease with the increasing the amounts of Karaya gum. However, no significant variation in swelling was observed with different amounts of flutamide loading. The absence of chemical interactions between active ingredients and polymer was confirmed by FT-IR spectral measurements. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies were performed to understand the crystalline nature of drug after encapsulation into the Hydrogel membranes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study the surface morphology of the hydrogel membranes. The in vitro studies were carried out in phosphate buffer pH 7.4 at 37°C. The results of controlled release tests showed that the amount of Flutamide release increased with the increasing the amount of SA in the membrane. Moreover, the release rate of drug increased as the amount of drug loaded in the membranes increased. All the results indicated that the prepared membrane was potentially useful in drug delivery systems and the prolonged release rate was observed.