Development and characterization of reverse micelle based pluronic lecithin organogel containing imatinib mesylate

Imatinib Mesylate is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is used orally in the treatment of skin cancer. Since it is a hydrophilic drug, it is a challenge to design a carrier to incorporate this drug with suitable encapsulation efficiency. Reverse micelles having inner hydrophilic and outer hydrophobic core was prepared using lecithin and isopropyl myristate to encapsulate imatinb mesylate. The encapsulation performance of reverse micelles packed with imatinib mesylate was found to be 47%. The composition of reverse micelles has an impact on the size and the index of polydispersity. To avoid systemic side effects associated with oral administration, topical treatment using organogel may be used. Using pluronic F 127 as hydrophilic polymer, reverse micelle containing imatinib mesylate was converted into organogel. The formulated organogel consisted of 30% w/v of reverse micelles containing imatinib mesylate and 70% of the pluronic F127. The formulated organogel was found to have suitable physical properties. In vitro diffusion studies show that drug was released up to 46.02% over a period of 8 hrs.