Intragastric floating drug delivery system in the remaining use of herbal medicines to eradicate Helicobacter pylori Research Progress.docVIP

 PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 28 Intragastric floating drug delivery system in the remaining use of herbal medicines to eradicate Helicobacter pylori Research Progress By: Shreeraj H. SHAH, Jayvadan K. PATEL, Nirav V. PATEL [Keywords:] Helicobacter pylori; gastric retention agent; floating dosage forms; herbs; black KE Zi; berberine Helicobacter pylori are very common patho  genic bacteria colonizing about half of all populations and associated with the development of serious gastroduodenal diseases like gastric lym  phoma, peptic ulcers and acute chronic gastritis. Current drug regimes are not wholly effective. Other problems related with the current drug regimes are lack of patient compliance, side effects and bacterial resistance. Thus, drug delivery to the site of residence in the gastric mucosa may help in solving the problems associated with the current drug therapy. Gastric retentive delivery systems potentially allow increased penetration and thus increased drug concentration at the site of action. Floating drug delivery systems, expandable or swellable drug delivery systems and bioadhesive systems are the major areas of interest to formulate gastroretentive drug delivery system against H. pylori. Generally, problems with these formulations are lack of specificity and the dependence on mucus turnover, so they fail to persist in the stomach. Gastric mucoadhesive systems are hailed as a promising technology to address this issue, penetrating the mucus layer and prolonging activity at the mucus  epithelial interface. Gastroretentive delivery strategies, specifically with regard to their application as a delivery system to target Helicobacter, are a very attractive field which can cure these troublesome infections. H. pylori is a Gram  negative, microaerophilic, spiral and flagellated bacterium, with unipolar  sheathed flagella that provides motility. Its spiral shape and high motility allows it to penetrate mucus, resist gastric emptying and remain