Formulation and In-Vitro Evaluation of Flurbiprofen Nanoparticles for Transdermal Delivery

The skin has been a major route for delivery of a wide range of drugs both locally and systemically. Transdermal drug delivery system (TDD) has been widely applied for local and systemic delivery of drugs. Transdermal drug delivery system has been be applied to deliver drugs systemically as an alternative for oral route due to multiple reasons such as the elimination of gastric irritation through oral intake of drugs and avoidance of first pass metabolism which improve the release of active agent over time. The development of nanotechnology played a huge impact in the field of drug design especially in enhancing the solubility of poorly soluble drugs (class II), hence improving bioavailability of these drugs. Flurbiprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), it's categorized under class II of biopharmaceutics classification of drugs with poor solubility and good permeability. Flurbiprofen nanoparticles were prepared by using nanoprecipitation method. Different polymers (PVA, PVP and poloxamer 188) in different concentrations were used as stabilizers in this research. The results shows that all of the prepared FBP nanoparticles formulas showed a particle size result within nano range with variations from 9nm to 158nm. The release profile of the drug from nanoparticles were improved compares to the pure drug.