Investigation of sustained release mucoadhesive in-situ gel system of Secnidazole for the persistent treatment of vaginal infections

Vaginitis is a common infection caused by bacteria and fungi leading to inflammation, itching and redness in the vaginal mucosal region, which can be treated by antibacterial and antifungal drug therapy. The current work is focused on development of aerosol foam formulation of an in situ gel for treatment of vaginitis. For this purpose, in situ gel formulations were prepared using carbopol 940, carrageenan and cellulose polymers at different composition and converted to foam spray using sodium lauryl sulphate as foaming agent. The prepared formulations were evaluated for standard quality parameters and the results confirmed the significance of the optimized formulation to deliver the drug in vaginal region and provide sustained release for 8 h. Based on the results obtained, it was evident that the in situ gel formulations comprising of 0.45% of carbopol 940 with 0.35% HPMC K4M and the 0.35% of carbopol 940 with 0.35% HPC were optimum for gelation process. These formulations also released less than 50% of drug in simulated vaginal fluid at the end of 8 h. In conclusion, optimization of polymer concentration for the in vivo gelation process would be the efficient way to develop stable vaginal drug delivery systems.