A Mini Review on Mucoadhesion

The concept of mucoadhesion was started in early 1980’s with the aim of controlled delivery of drugs. Mucoadhesion is simply defined as the adhesion between two materials, in which one is the mucosal surface and the another one is the mucoadhesive dosage form. In the recent decades, mucoadhesive drug delivery system draw the attention in the gastroretentive delivery system. Mucoadhesive drug delivery systems interact with the mucus layer covering the mucosal epithelial surface, and mucin molecules and increase the residence time. Mucoadhesive dosage forms are designed to increase the retention of the drug/dosage form at the application site, to provide a controlled release of drug for increased curative consequence. The medications which have local action or those which have maximum absorption in gastrointestinal tract require increased duration of stay in GIT. Mucoadhesive drug delivery systems were prepared by using either natural or synthetic polymers, which is interacting with the mucous layer and used to prevail over the physiological barriers for extended drug delivery. The mucoadhesive ability of a dosage form is depending upon variety of factors, such as the nature of the mucosal tissue and the physicochemical properties of the polymeric formulation. This review article aims to provide an overview of the various theories of mucoadhesion, properties of mucoadhesive materials, methods to study the mucoadhesion, and finally various mucoadhesive dosage forms.