Review: CHITOSAN-BASED INTERPENETRATING POLYMER NETWORK (IPN) HYDROGELS: A POTENTIAL MULTICOMPONENT ORAL DRUG DELIVERY VEHICLE

Multicomponent drug delivery systems have found several potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Among these the interpenetrating polymeric network (IPN) has emerged as one of the most useful novel biomaterial, which is entanglement of polymer networks with at least one network synthesized and/or cross-linked in the presence of the other. The development of IPN is attractive because they provide free volume space for the easy encapsulation of drugs in the three-dimensional network structure which are obtained by cross-linking of two or more polymer network. This review focuses on the IPN hydrogels based on chitosan for oral drug delivery applications. Chitosan is a natural, biodegradable, nontoxic, mucoadhesive and biocompatible polymer and has found diverse pharmaceutical applications. Chitosan based IPN hydrogels have garnered immense attention as a vehicle for oral drug delivery. The suitability of chitosan based IPN hydrogels as potential oral delivery vehicle stems from their capability of imbibing large amount of body fluid without solubilisation and potential for encapsulation of large amount of drugs, adaptability to be combined with specific responsive polymer(s). This review also summarizes IPN and various multicomponent polymeric materials for developing drug delivery vehicle.