Mucoadhesive Gastro Intestinal Drug Delivery System : An Overview

Mucoadhesion is a topic of current interest in the design of drug delivery systems. Mucoadhesive drug delivery system prolong the residence time of the dosage form at the site of application or absorption and facilitate an intimate contact of the dosage form with the underline absorption surface and thus contribute to improved and / or better therapeutic performance of the drug. In recent years many such mucoadhesive drug delivery systems have been developed for oral, buccal, nasal, rectal and vaginal routes for both systemic and local effects. This paper lays emphasis mainly on gastrointestinal dosage forms along with concepts, mechanism of mucoadhesion, factors affecting mucoadhesion, anatomy of gastrointestinal tract and evaluation methods. IntroductionOral drug delivery has been known for decades as the most widely utilized route of administration among all the routes that have been explored for the systemic delivery of drugs via various pharmaceutical products of different dosage forms. The reasons that the oral route achieved such popularity may be in part attributed to its ease of administration as well as the traditional belief that by oral administration the drug is well absorbed as the food stuffs that are ingested daily. In fact, the development of a pharmaceutical product for oral delivery, irrespective of its physical form (solid, semi-solid or liquid dosage forms) involves varying extents of optimization of dosage forms characteristics within the inherent constraints of GI physiology1.