Antibiotic cefotaxime Biocompatible delivery systems based on calcium alginate gel microparticles
Biocompatible drug delivery systems of cefotaxime based on natural polysaccharide alginate have been obtained. Calcium alginate gel particles are synthesized by the ionotropic gelation of sodium alginate in the presence of calcium cations in an aqueous medium. The finished particles had a spherical shape with an average diameter of 2.0 ± 0.05 mm and had a dense homogeneous structure. Immobilization of the antibiotic cefotaxime in calcium alginate particles was carried out by preliminary introduction of the drug into a sodium alginate solution before mixing it with calcium chloride. The content of cefotaxime in the particles was varied from 5 to 250 mg / g. The efficiency of encapsulating the antibiotic, calculated from the difference between the initial amount of the drug taken for inclusion in the microparticles, and the equilibrium amount of the antibiotic in the CaCl<sub>2</sub> solution, was 93%. The process of immobilization and release of cefotaxime was monitored spectrophotometrically in the UV range. The release of the antibiotic from calcium alginate microparticles was studied in vitro in physiological saline (0.9% NaCl). The absorption spectra of cefotaxime solutions revealed shoulders at wavelengths of 235 (1st shoulder) and 262 (2nd shoulder) nm. It was shown that the range of linear dependence of optical density on the concentration of cefotaxime was 10-50 μg / ml. It was found that the rate of release of cefotaxime from gel particles is influenced by the loading capacity of the drug, the concentration of sodium alginate and calcium chloride, as well as the conditions for the formation of gel particles. The resulting gel microspheres based on calcium alginate can be considered as cefotaxime delivery systems with high encapsulation efficiency and controlled release.