Spray dried albumin microspheres containing nicardipine

This work deals with the preparation of drug loaded albumin microspheres, designed as potential nasal delivery system. Nicardipine hydrochloride was chosen as the model drug, because of its high hepatic metabolism when administered by the oral route, while bovine serum albumine was used as biodegradable polymer. The albumin microspheres, prepared using a spray drying technique, were characterized in terms of yield of production, drug encapsulation efficiency, shape and size; their in vitro release behaviour was determined in buffer using two different techniques (rotating flask and flow-through cell). In order to characterize their bioadhesive properties, an in vitro preliminary test for microparticulate systems is also proposed.