Sustained release of acyclovir from nano-liposomes and nano-niosomes: An in vitro study

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Authors: Biswajit Mukherjee, Balaram Patra, Buddhadev Layek, Arup Mukherjee

Published Date August 2007 Volume 2007:2(2) Pages 213 - 225

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S

Biswajit Mukherjee¹, Balaram Patra¹, Buddhadev Layek¹, Arup Mukherjee²

¹Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India; ²Department of Chemical Technology, Calcutta University, Kolkata, India

Abstract: The present study was designed to develop and compare acyclovir containing nano-vesicular liposomes and niosomes based on cholesterol, soya L-α-lecithin and nonionic surfactant, span 20. The effort was made to study in vitro whether acyclovir-loaded nanovesicles could sustain the release of the drug by increasing residence time and thus, acyclovir could reduce its dose-related systemic toxicity. There were good vesicular distributions in both of the niosomes and the liposomes. The obtained vesicles were within 1 µm and about 35% of them were within a size of 100 nm. The percentage of drug loading varied and the niosomal vesicles contained more drug as compared with the liposomes. When the in vitro drug release was compared, it was found that the liposomes released about 90% drug in 150 min whereas the drug release was just 50% from the niosomal vesicles in 200 min. Again, the niosomes showed better stability compared with the liposomes. Thus, niosome could be a better choice for intravenous delivery of acyclovir.

Keywords: acyclovir, liposomes, niosomes, sustained release