LAUSR

BACKGROUND Topical delivery of therapeutic agents is considered beneficial due to various advantages like ease of administration, avoidance of the first-pass effect, and improved patient compliance. Therefore, scientists around the globe are exploring this route for the delivery of drugs nowadays. OBJECTIVE The present investigation aimed to prepare, optimize, and characterize in-vitro the urea-loaded microsponges for efficient topical delivery. METHODS Urea-loaded ethylcellulose microsponges were prepared using quasi emulsion solvent diffusion technique and optimized using Box-Behnken design (BBD). Furthermore, they were characterized in-vitro exploring various techniques like Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). In-vitro drug release and release kinetics analysis was also performed. RESULTS Urea-loaded microsponges were spherical and porous. Optimized urea loaded microsponges showed a minimum size (39.78 ± 1.98 µm), high entrapment (74.56 ± 2.8%), acceptable polydispersity index (PDI) (0.224 ± 0.081) and zeta potential (-21.9 ± 2.9 mV). These microsponges were capable to sustain the release of urea for 24 h (91.21 ± 5.20%) and the mechanism of release was the combination of diffusion and erosion. CONCLUSION The developed microsponge system could be beneficial for topical delivery of urea as it could reduce the dosing frequency of urea and increase patient compliance through its sustained release.