Affiliation:
1. Department of Pharmaceutics, Vijaya Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences for women, Vijayawada.
2. Department of Pharmacology, Vijaya Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences for women, Vijayawada.
Abstract
Colon-specific drug delivery systems (CDDS) are advantageous for the treatment of a range of local diseases such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pancreatitis, and colonic cancer. Colon targeted drug delivery system can be utilized to deliver protein and peptide drugs as they that are known to degrade in the extreme gastric pH. These approaches involve the use of formulation components that interact with one or more aspects of gastrointestinal (GI) physiology, such as the variation in the pH along the GI tract, the occurrence of colonic microflora, and enzymes, to attain colon targeting. This article highlights the advantages, limitations and factors influencing colon-specific drug delivery. Further, the review gives information of various conventional, as well as relatively newer formulation approaches presently being utilized for the improvement of CDDS.