Fabrication of Biodegradable Implantable Devices for Sustained Localized Drug release

Abstract

This thesis is focused on fabrication of biodegradable implantable devices for extended localized drug release. Paclitaxel (PT) was used as cancer drug in the study. Poly lactic –co- glycolic acid (PLGA) is a polymer used for drug elution. In this work, the role of enzymes on the degradation of PLGA, Effect of different pH on the degradation of PLGA and the kinetics of drug release was elucidated. PLGA ratios of 75:25 and 85:15 were used. The enzyme used in the study is lipase enzyme. The pH used was 4.0, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0 and 7.4. From the study, it was observed that lipase enzyme increased the rate of polymer degradation and thus the rate of drug release from PLGA. This experiment also shows that PLGA degrades faster in acidic medium. This also caused the kinetics of drug release to be higher in acidic medium than in alkaline or neutral medium.