Mucoadhesive drug delivery system: an overview

The major objective of any dosage form is to deliver an optimum therapeutic amount of active agent to the proper site in the body to attain constant & maintenance of the desired drug concentration. Mucoadhesive drug delivery systems are effective delivery systems with various advantages as compared to other oral controlled release dosage forms in terms of drug delivery at specific sites with prolonged retention time of drugs at target sites. The main advantage of these systems includes avoiding first pass metabolism of the drugs and hence availability of high drug concentration at target site. Oral mucoadhesive systems have potential ability for controlled and extended release profile so as to get better performance and patient compliance. The present manuscript briefly reviews the benefits of mucoadhesive drug delivery systems, mechanisms involved in mucoadhesion, different factors affecting mucoadhesive drug delivery systems.