12th International Conference of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) can be considered drug release systems, which may or may not modify the drug release profile. The aim of this work was to evaluate in vitro methotrexate (MTX) release profile from PECs, hydrogel (HG), and PECs incorporated to HG. To this end PECs loaded with MTX (MTX-PEC) were obtained by polyelectrolyte complexation between oligochitosan and hypromellose. The matrix of MTX-HG was composed by poloxamers 147 and 188. Also, MTX-PEC was dispersed into base HG (MTX-PEC-HG). The MTX release profiles were determined using Franz-type diffusion cells1 and compared to MTX solution. The MTX release from PECs was very similar to from solution (Fig. 1). The drug release from MTX-HG was slower than from MTX-PEC and increased up to 10 h. The most extended drug release was from MTX-PEC-HG. In conclusion, the incorporation of PECs into hydrogel was successful to extend the MTX release.