BIOAVAILABILITY IMPROVEMENT OF ACARBOSE BY ACRYLATION TO POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL HYDROGELS

S.J. Owonubi, E. Mukwevho, B.A. Aderibigbe, E.R. Sadiku and D. Bezuidenhout

Biological Sciences, North-West University, Mmabatho, South Africa

Abstract

Diabetes is one of the most challenging lifestyle diseases. By 2016, about 14.2 million adults aged 20-79 had diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa and it is estimated that by 2030 about 552 million people will be living with the disease worldwide. Type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a progressive metabolic disorder and contemporary pharmacological agents such as metformin and acarbose which are employed as front line medications for its management have not been successful in its cure. The utilization of these drugs is associated with detrimental side effects, low absorption and of additional concern is the issue of patients’ non-compliance to medication. A unique acrylation design of an effective polyethylene glycol polymer-drug delivery mechanism, for the successful delivery of acarbose was achieved to improve its bioavailability and effectiveness. Successful drug attachment was accomplished and confirmed by techniques viz: Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis; while increased bioavailability was confirmed by performing pH swelling analysis on the polymer gels, performing in vitro drug release to observe the release kinetics and finally, performing toxicity analysis confirmed the synthesized acarbose linked polymers were not toxic to c2c12 mouse myoblast cell line.

Keywords: Acarbose, acrylation, polyethylene glycol, hydrogels, pH swelling, bioavailability.