Nanostructured Lipid Carrier-Based Hydrogel of Fenoprofen Calcium for Sustained Release: Optimization, Characterisation, and in vitro Evaluation
1, 2, 2
- 1Department of Pharmaceutics, Chitkara College of Pharmacy, Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab, INDIA.
- 2Department of Pharmaceutics, MM College of Pharmacy, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed to be University), Mullana-Ambala, Haryana, INDIA.
CORRESPONDENCE
Sukhbir Singh
Department of Pharmaceutics, MM College of Pharmacy, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed to be University), Mullana-Ambala, Haryana, INDIA.
Received: 19-03-2026; Accepted: 21-05-2026.
Volume 60, Issue 3s (Supplement) · pp. s970-s981 · 2026 · DOI: 10.5530/ijper.20262181
ABSTRACT
Objectives: Fenoprofen Calcium (FEN) has short elimination half-life, frequent dosage administration and numerous gastrointestinal side effects on oral administration. The primary objective of this research was to synthesize optimized FEN-loaded Nanostructured Lipid Carriers (FEN-NLCs) using Box-Behnken design and develop its hydrogel with enhanced dissolution in conjunction with sustained drug release.Materials and Methods: FEN-NLCs were synthesized by solvent evaporation technique using Compritol 888 and oleic acid, optimised by Box-Behnken design and characterized by FTIR and HR-TEM. The FEN-NLC-hydrogel was evaluated for physicochemical characteristics and in vitro drug release study.Results: The desirability function of optimal formulation was found 0.874 with predicted values of 92.89 %w/w entrapment efficiency, 136.19 µg/cm2/hour flux and 72.98%w/w yield. FEN-NLC-hydrogel was developed which illustrated pseudo-plastic flow behavior. FEN-hydrogel, PM-hydrogel and Fen-NLC-hydrogel exhibited cumulative drug release of 19.5%, 20.79% and 30.42% within 4 hr; 44.57%, 47.37% and 79.86% within 8 hr while 45.6%, 47.81% and 93.34% in 24 hr which revealed 2-folds enhancement in drug dissolution. This indicated poor in vitro drug release from plain drug-hydrogel with negligible increase in drug release after 8 hr. While Fen-NLC-hydrogel showed sustained increase in drug release till 24 hr. The n-value for peppas model was 0.8676 which showed anomalous phenomenon and sustained drug release from FEN-NLCs.Conclusion: The current research conclusively manifested that Fenoprofen Calcium loaded nanostructured lipid carriers-based hydrogel holds great prospective for providing sustained drug release.
KEYWORDS
REFERENCES
As publishedShowing references and in-text citations exactly as published.
Cite this article
SELECT FORMAT
Zahoor, I., Sharma, N., & Singh, S. (2026). Nanostructured Lipid Carrier-Based Hydrogel of Fenoprofen Calcium for Sustained Release: Optimization, Characterisation, and in vitro Evaluation. Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, 60(3s), s970-s981. https://doi.org/10.5530/ijper.20262181
Copyright and licence
© 2026 Author(s)
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC BY 4.0