Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are widely used to treat effects of inflammation through inhibition of cyclooxygenase enzyme. The major limitation to long term therapeutic use of these drugs is their gastro toxicity. Prodrug approach is an established tool to solve this problem. Prodrug approach is now opening new doors in the challenging field of Drug Discovery and Development. The present work was targeted at the designing of carrier linked prodrug of Niflumic acid by masking the free carboxyl group with glucosamine to avoid undesirable gastro toxicity. The synthesized prodrug was characterized by analytical and spectral data. In vitro hydrolysis of prodrug indicated that they were quite stable in pH 2.5 and pH 7.4 whereas in Phosphate buffer pH 8.0 undergo hydrolysis following first order kinetics, releasing the free drug and glucosamine. The synthesized prodrug was screened for its anti-inflammatory activity and ulcerogenic potential. It exhibited comparable anti-inflammatory activity and significant less ulcerogenic than parent drug.
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