Development of Bromfenac Sodium Loaded Pluronic Nanomicelles: Characterization and Corneal Permeation Study

Background: The Cataract is the leading cause of visual impairment and preventable blindness worldwide. Cataract removal surgery involves various post-operative complications like pain and inflammation. Objectives: The objective of this study is to screen the polymer concentration as well as optimize the formulation components to develop the pluronic micelles with nanosized characterization and for enhanced corneal permeation study. Methodology: For optimization, Central Composite design was employed to study the effect of independent variables, concentration of Pluronic F 127 (X1) and the concentration of Hyaluronic acid (X2) on chosen responses (Y 1 ) Micelle size, (Y 2 ) Entrapment Efficiency, (Y 3 ) Viscosity. The lyophilised powder was used for physical characterisation. Results: The formulation containing 5%w/v Pluronic F127 and 0.2%w/v Hyaluronic acid was the optimised composition with micelle size and zeta potential 38.74±4.12nm and -17.6±0.1 mV respectively. In-vitro drug release was found to be 91.72±1.2 percentage in 8 hours. Surface morphology revealed micelles were spherical in shape. Ocular irritancy study showed that formulation was safe and non-irritant. In vitro corneal permeation studies through excised rabbit cornea indicated 1.5 fold increase in ocular availability without corneal damage compared to an aqueous suspension containing the same amount of drug in nanomicelles. Conclusion: In a nutshell, Pluronic Nanomicelles would be a platform for the delivery of Bromfenac Sodium.