Preparation and Characterization of Nano Structured Lipid Carriers for Ocular Bacterial Infection

The problem of bacterial conjunctivitis has dramatically increased in recent years due increased pollution and modern lifestyle. The present study was focused to fabricate Sparfloxacin loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (Spar-NLCs) for ophthalmic application to improve ocular penetration of drug and give sustained release of drug to reduce dosing frequency and toxic effect of drug associated with ocular membrane. A regular two-level factorial design was used to optimize the formulation parameters that are significantly affecting the formulation attributes. Spar-NLCs with particle size 171.1 ± 11 nm, zeta potential -49 ± 6.47 mV, entrapment efficiency 89.5 ± 5% and spherical in shape was obtained. Besides this, FTIR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and transmission electron microscopy results suggest that the drug is successfully incorporated in NLC and has excellent compatibility with the excipients. In vitro release study follows Korsmeyer peppas model and suggests that 81.35 ± 6.2% release of drug from Spar-NLCs in 12 hours. The result of ex-vivo permeation study demonstrated 349.75 ± 7.3 µg/cm2 of permeation of drug, 44.482 µg cm-2 hr -1 of flux, and 0.1482 cm hr-1 of permeability coefficient which is 1.7 folds higher than pure drug suspension. The antimicrobial activity of Spar-NLCs was better than the pure drug suspension and equivalent to the marketed formulation. Spar-NLC formulation did not showed any ocular damage, swelling, and redness in in -vivo Draize test. The ocular tolerance test (HET-CAM test) also suggests that the Spar-NLC formulation and its excipients were nonirritant to the ocular tissues. The formulation was found to be stable over the three month of stability study. Therefore, this work strongly suggest that Spar-NLCs has higher penetration and extended release of drug which can be effectively used in prevention of bacterial conjunctivitis.