Abstract
Ciprofloxacin (CFX) is a broad spectrum antibiotic belonging to fluoroquinolones. The study aims to optimize and formulate chitosan hydrogels loaded with 1% CFX for dermal use. Two factors, three levels (32) full factorial design was used to optimize the effect of chitosan molecular weight, MW (X1) and concentration (X2) on both CFX release rate within 3 h (Y1) and diffusion coefficient (Y2). The prepared hydrogels were evaluated for their viscosity and pH values as well as in-vitro drug release. In addition, disc diffusion method was used for antibacterial susceptibility test for the CFX-loaded chitosan hydrogels. The statistical data showed that X1 and X2 have significant antagonistic effects (p-value < 0.05) on CFX release from chitosan gel bases, but the effect of X1 was higher. The drug release from chitosan hydrogels followed Higuchi diffusion kinetic model, and the calculated n values indicated an anomalous (non-Fickian) transport. Furthermore, CFX-loaded chitosan gels exhibited potent antibacterial activity on both gram negative and positive strains. The results concluded that controlled release hydrogels of the antimicrobial agent can result in maximum therapeutic efficacy of the drug along with minimized time required to change wound dressing. This can lead to improved patient compliance.