Preparation and Characterization of an Antiviral Gel

Abstract

The study was to develop an antiviral gel for topical application. The topical application of drug has many advantages over the intravenous and oral administration. It prevents metabolism of drug from liver and avoid the risk of gastrointestinal disorder and inconvenience of intravenous therapy pain. When the drug is applied topically it can penetrate deeper into the skin hence show better absorption and bioavailability. The wide varieties of pharmaceutical dosage form are available for topical drug delivery system. The most used one is gel, ointment and cream. Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) is widely spread that cause infections. There are two types of this virus, one is HSV-1 usually causes sore around the lip or inside the mouth that are sometime called fever blisters or cold sore and the second is HSV-2, it causes sore on the genitals. Acyclovir is a selective and effective antiviral agent. Acyclovir remains the gold standard in the treatment of Herpes Simplex Virus infections, mainly due to emerging new drug delivery systems which are improving the bioavailability and fewer side effects. The gel was prepared in different batches or formulation by using different types of polymers in varying concentration viz. Carbopol-934, Carbopol-940, HPMC, and Na-CMC. The gel formulations were evaluated for physical and chemical characterization like visual appearance, drug content, pH, viscosity, extrudability, spread ability etc. and the results was compared.