PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NITRENDIPINE LOADED GRAFTED COPOLYMER MICROSPHERES: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Objectives: Developing countries like India suffers mostly from cardiovascular problems and kidney failure. An antihypertensive drug is mainly used to avoid the cardiovascular problems and kidney failure. Nitrendipine is a calcium antagonist widely used in the treatment of hypertension. The bioavailability of drug, when administered orally, is low. Sustained drug delivery systems are using microspheres emerging as an effective method to increase the bioavailability of the drug. The current work involves the encapsulation of nitrendipine - acrylamide grafted chitosan which helps to overcome poor solubility and hydrophobic nature of the nitrendipine. This will enhance the drug dissolution and reduce the side effects of the antihypertensive drug.Methods: By emulsion cross-linking method, grafted copolymers were prepared. The physicochemical interactions between the drug and grafted copolymer were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).Results: Encapsulated drug and grafted copolymer were characterized by FTIR to understand the chemical interactions and to identify the functional groups present. Morphology and particle size of the grafted copolymer with drug and without drug were assessed by SEM. DSC was used to identify the melting endotherms of a drug, copolymer cross-linked microspheres, and drug encapsulated microspheres.Conclusion: Thus, the drug encapsulated grafted copolymer increases the hydrophilic character and thereby making the polymers feasible for functioning as drug carriers for sustained drug delivery system