BIONANOCOMPOSITE SYSTEMS BASED ON MONTMORILLONITE AND BIOPOLYMERS FOR THE CONTROLLED RELEASE OF OLANZAPINE
Bionanocomposite, hybrid, montmorillonite, xanthan gum, alginate, olanzapine, drug delivery
Olanzapine (OLZ) is a drug that is used in the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychoses, and it belongs to the thienobenzodiazepine class. However, OLZ has low solubility in aqueous media, limiting its ability to treat and cure diseases. It is classified as a Class II drug substance according to the Biopharmaceutics Classification System. There are many reported side effects of administering OLZ orally. Thus, it is necessary that these factors be reduced in systems for the controlled release of OLZ. This work proposes a controlled release system that incorporates the drug into an inorganic support composed of clay mineral-montmorillonite (MMT) dispersed in a mixture of alginate (ALG) and xanthan gum (XG) biopolymers. The proposed hybrids and bionanocomposites were characterized by several physicochemical techniques, including XRD, IR-ATR, TGDTA, SEM-EDS and HPLC. The characterization data confirmed the intercalation of the OLZ into the MMT by the ion exchange process, as well as the interaction of the MMT-OLZ hybrid with the biopolymers. The release test, conducted under various pH conditions, showed that the proposed system exhibited a more controlled drug release than commercial tablets, indicating that the ALG-XG/MMT-OLZ bionanocomposite can act as a controlled release system for OLZ.