Development and in-vitro evaluation of Etoricoxib loaded Transdermal Film containing MWCNT

Nanocomposites are materials that integrate either a unit of nanoscale material or multi-units of nanoscale material into a matrix of a standard substance. The main purpose of the current study is to fabricate and evaluate nanocomposite transdermal films of Etoricoxib. The transdermal films of etoricoxib were developed with a mixture of polymers viz. Eudragit RL-100 and HPMC K4M, with or without different percentages of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT, 1, 3, 5, and 10%, w/w of total polymer) using solvent casting method. Various parameters including FT-IR, DSC, drug content, folding endurance, moisture content, moisture uptake, water vapour permeability (WVP), and in-vitro drug release employing Franz diffusion cell were assessed for the prepared films. The absence of interaction between the drug and polymers was confirmed by FT-IR and DSC studies. The thickness of the resulted films was within the range of 0.33 +/- 2.76 mu m to 0.43 +/- 2.76 mu m. The weights of prepared films were between 85.1 +/- 1.3 mg to 85.15 +/- 0.8 mg. The drug content was measured to be between 4.486 and 5.993 mg. The folding endurance of the developed films ranged from 237.33 +/- 7.8 to 342 +/- 6.5. The moisture content (%) was between 5.91 +/- 1.2% and 8.84 +/- 4.0%, whereas the percent moisture uptake of prepared films was observed to be between 8.23 +/- 2.1% and 12.38 +/- 3.6%. The WVP of films was found to be 97.08 +/- 0.57 g/m(2)/day to 194.17 +/- 0.81 g/m(2)/day. In-vitro release studies revealed that formulation F4 prepared with an equal amount (50:50) of Eudragit RL-100 and HPMC K4M, and 5% MWCNT shows the highest drug release after 24 hr of study.The above results imply that the nanocomposite films could be an effective tool for transdermal delivery of etoricoxib and could act as a better prospect in replacing the oral dosage form.