Development and characterization of Nano-structured lipid carriers (NLC) for effective delivery of drugs in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

The autoimmune disorders arise as a consequence of systemic inflammation and immunomodulation as seen in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is a chronic inflammatory condition delineated by pain, inflammation of joints, proliferation of synovium and progressive bone and cartilage erosion. The commercially available therapeutics, including anti-inflammatory drugs, has side-effects upon direct intake such as nausea, hepatic dysregulations, diarrhoea, gastrointestinal problems, renal disturbances etc. Therefore, there is an urgent need to devise alternatives which might overcome the issues associated with oral consumption of the drug as well as provide enhanced drug uptake, greater drug distribution, more biocompatibility and reduced cytotoxicity. Nanoparticles are colloidal delivery carriers which are highly efficient among the available novel drug delivery vehicles. Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) are second generation colloidal drug delivery vehicles that circumvent problems associated with the conventional routes of drug delivery. In our present study, we have used the widely applicable and most effective DMARD (disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug) methotrexate, entrapped it in NLCs and characterized their different parameters followed by in- vitro assays to check the cell viability. We have also made NLCs loaded with a novel NSAID (non-steroidal antiinflammatory drug) aceclofenac and checked their different characteristics. Both the drug entrapped in NLC have shown the promising results in terms of their size, stability as well as sustain drug release with respect to plain drug at certain extend. We proposed to validate our invitro findings and we have prepared the carbopol gel containing our formulations which have been checked for their parameters. In conclusion, NLC entrapped MTX and ACL can be used to deliver the drug for their sustain release alongside their gel formulation need to check through in-vivo experiments for the validation of in-vitro results.