Fabrication of interpenetrating polymer network hydrogel microspheres: Formulation optimization of cinnarizine loaded chitosan/methylcellulose microspheres using response surface methodology

The present research project deals with the design of cinnarizine loaded oral controlled release mucoadhesive interpenetrating polymer network hydrogel microspheres composed of chitosan and methylcellulose and optimization of various response parameters using response surface methodology. A detailed introduction, literature review and methodology has been provided for the readers to gain an insight into the theory and practice of design of experiments. The research work involved application of several core aspects of drug delivery incorporating polymer complexes, hydrogel networks, gastroretention, bioadhesion, absorption window related to weakly basic drugs, mathematical modeling of drug release kinetics, microencapsulation processes and various optimization and characterization techniques. The high degree of prognosis (due to low values of error) obtained using response surface methodology corroborates that a two-factor central composite design is quite efficient in optimizing drug delivery systems that exhibit nonlinearity in response(s). The results indicated that interpenetrating polymer networks could be employed as potential gastroretentive systems for weakly basic drugs.