Bioadhesion of solid oral dosage forms, why and how?

This review focuses on two kinds of bioadhesive solid oral dosage form: tablets for buccal administration, and nanoparticles for intestinal and more specifically colonic administration. For each of these dosage forms, the advantages of the form for drug delivery are presented as well as a short explanation of its bioadhesion mechanism and the bioadhesion evaluation methods. For bioadhesive tablets examples are given concerning the influence of tablet characteristics and of the surrounding medium on bioadhesion. For nanoparticles, examples are given concerning the influence of the nanoparticle surface charges and of the presence of lectins on their intestinal biaadhesion at various pH. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.