Overview of Mucoadhesive Biopolymers for Buccal Drug Delivery Systems

Abstract

Mucoadhesive dosage forms may be intended for facilitation of prolonged retention time at the application site hence providing drug release in a controlled rate for enhanced improvement of therapeutic activity and its outcome. The buccal mucosa has been investigated for systemic drug delivery and local drug treatment or therapy that is subjected to first pass metabolism. The applicability of bio-adhesion approach in buccal drug delivery proved great therapeutic potential to overcome the limitation of conventional buccal drug delivery. The delivery via buccal route using mucoadhesive biopolymers such as various natural gums e.g. carrageenans, gum karaya, gum arabic, locust bean gum, khaya gum, gum ghatti, albizia gum, guar gum, starch, cellulose, larch gum and pectin etc. and various thiolated and carboxymethylated polymers has been the subject of interest since the early 20th century. The present article is focused mainly on the oral mucosa, mechanism of drug permeation, and characteristics of the desired polymers, the manuscript then proceeds to cover the theories behind the adhesion of bioadhesive polymers to the mucosal epithelium followed by the factors affecting mucoadhesion. Further the author has also discussed on the new generation of mucoadhesive polymers and their properties, recent mucoadhesive formulations for enhanced buccal drug delivery, various marketed products and patent literature. Various online search engines and scientific journals were employed for the collection of literature and scientific data and information related to the topic using keywords like mucoadhesive polymers, buccal drug delivery, buccal patches, tablets, films, gels, powder from the year 2002 and above.

Enhancement of oral bioavailability of natural compounds and probiotics by mucoadhesive tailored biopolymer-based nanoparticles: A review

“…Traditionally, polymers rich in hydrophilic groups have been shown to present mucoadhesive potential, which is strongly influenced by a number of factors such as chain flexibility, molar mass, molecular charge, crosslinking density, ionic strength and moisture level (Puri, Sharma, Maman, Rathore & Singh, 2019). The environmental pH, and even the drying method, also greatly affect the mucoadhesive properties of biopolymers (Grabovac, Guggi & Bernkop-Schnürch, 2005).…”

Synthesis and Characterization of Thiolated Gum Ghatti as a Novel Excipient: Development of Compression Coated Mu-Coadhesive Tablets of Domperidone

“…Mucoadhesive interactions lead to the development of strong mucoadhesive bond due to electrostatic, mechanical/ physical crosslinking, chemical bonding, wetting or adsorption interactions [1,2]. Mucoadhesive drug delivery systems could be designed for active targeting of different biological locations like nasal [3], buccal [4,5], gastro intestinal [6], rectal [7], vaginal etc [8,9]. Mucoadhesive polymers could be used alone or in combination for providing suffi-cient mucoadhesive property to the drug delivery system [2,10].…”

Thiolation of Biopolymers for Developing Drug Delivery Systems with Enhanced Mechanical and Mucoadhesive Properties: A Review

“…Mucoadhesive dosage forms target local areas of mucosal surface at a lower dose, the surface area of mucosal surfaces in the body being a huge factor in the adhesion of various drugs. The area of mucosal surfaces is larger than skin and hence it proved to be 4 times more effective than that of skin [ 5 , 6 ]. Polymers play a vital role for the development of mucoadhesive dosage form.…”

“…Mucoadhesion takes place depending upon the pH of thiolated polymer, pH of the surrounding medium and pKa of the thiol group. The disulfide bonds thus formed are not influenced by the ionic strength and pH condition [ 5 ].…”