Mucoadhesive Buccal Systems as a Novel Strategy for Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Administration

Ana      Figueiras; Amelia      Vieira; Susana      Simoes; Francisco      Veiga

Abstract

This is a review article that intends to emphasize the advantages of buccal delivery as an alternative route of administration of anti-inflammatory drugs. The oral cavity has a number of features that make it desirable for drug administration: a rich blood supply that drains directly into the jugular vein, thus bypassing the liver and sparing the drug from first pass metabolism. To understand this point of view, some considerations are done relatively to the oral mucosal structural characteristics with relevance to drug administration, oral mucosal permeability, as well as drug absorption mechanisms through oral cavity. However, to design a buccal delivery system, it is necessary to take in account the residence time of drug formulation in the buccal mucosa. Mucoadhesion mechanism can be a solution to overcome this limitation. For this reason the main buccoadhesive pharmaceutical forms are approached, as well as the importance of oral mucosal in buccal anti-inflammatory drug delivery systems in terms of future perspectives.

Keywords: Anti-inflammatory drugs, buccal mucosa, buccoadhesive drug delivery systems, Transcellular Route, Paracellular Route, Molecular Weight, Penetration Enhancers, MUCOADHESION, Mucoadhesive Polymers, Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)