Virchow Group

The aim of the present study is to develop effervescent tablets of alendronate sodium to improve their intestinal permeability to treat osteoporosis. Effervescent tablets of alendronate sodium were develo ped with different ratios of acid to alk. components having a pH of about 3 to about 6.5. The tablets were prepared by direct compression method. The phys. mixture blend was evaluated for angle of repose, true d., bulk d., compressibility index. The formulated tablets were subjected to thickness, weight variation, hardness, friability, drug content and pH. The in vitro dissolution studies were carried out using the USP Type 2 apparatus Formulation F14 was considered as optimized formulation because it shows drug release pattern higher than that of the other formulations and conventional marketed formulation. Ex vivo permeation studies were performed for the optimized formulation (F14) and that of the conventional marketed formulation. The drug release of the formulation (F14) was higher than the marketed formulation. Accelerated stability studies of the optimized formulation indicated that there were no signs of visually distinguishable changes, drug content and in vitro dispersion time. Thus, an increase in drug release may enhance absorption, in turn may enhance bioavailability.

Tumor Lysis Syndrome and Gout are the conditions in which uric acid levels in the serum will be increased up to 526 mg/dL but in a healthy human being the uric acid concentration is less than 15mg/dL. In such conditions urate oxidase can be administered parentrally which can solublise the uric acid in to allontoin which has 3 to 5 fold more solubility than uric acid and it can be excreted through urine and maintain the uric acid concentration at normal level. In this article urate oxidase gene was isolated Aspergillus flavus and it was cloned in to E.coli (BL-21). Urate oxidase gene was expressed in the cytoplasm as soluble and biol. active form. Bioprocess was optimized for 20lts fermenter scale with modified LB medium and purified up to >96% purity using fractionated ammonium sulfate precipitation, diafiltration, anion exchange chromatog., cation exchange chromatog. and gel filtration chromatog. The final yield of purified recombinant urate oxidase from the 20lts fermenter was approx. 5 to 6gm of 96% pure and biol. active enzyme.