Abstract
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), which threatens to cause a great plague in present generation, was first identified in California in 1981, UNAIDS 2006 report showed 38.6 million children & adults to be infected with HIV/AIDS Worldwide. Most of the existing molecules have several drawbacks. Like in case of Zidovudine (Zido) drug which has low t1/2, first pass metabolism in liver, dose dependent hematological toxicity, poor bioavailability and also frequent oral dosing. The objective of this study was to prepare a transdermal delivery system for Zidovudine using different type of penetration enhancers incorporated in chitosan gel and to evaluate in-vitro as well as ex-vivo permeation across rat skin. In-vitro drug diffusion and ex vivo permeation studies through rat skin showed a high diffusion and permeation with formulation Zido-J, Zido-G containing penetration enhancers as compared to Zido-F (Blank) and other formulations, so achieving therapeutically effective plasma concentrations would be possible with these formulations. No lag-time was observed in release of zidovudine from gels. Among all gel formulations 2%w/w chitosan gel had desirable viscosity and exhibit follow pseudoplastic flow.
