Formulation and Evaluation of Fish Oil-based Rizatriptan Microemulsion for Intranasal Migraine Treatment

Abstract

In the present study microemulsion based intranasal gel of rizatriptan using fish oil was prepared for treatment and management of migraine to sustain the drug release and improve the drug residence time in nasal cavity. Fish oil is reported to have antimigraine activity hence it has been used in the present formulation along with cremophore EL as surfactant and Transcutol P as co-surfactant. The pseudoternary phase diagram plotted with these components shown the microemulsion existence region in ratio of (1:9-9:1) surfactant and co-surfactant. The optimized micro-emulsion contained fish oil (45.29%), cremophore E/transcutol P (2:1) and was characterized for pH (6.3±0.02), viscosity (114 ± 3.00cp), % transmittance (99.5 ± 1.01), refractive index (1.335±0.01),). The prepared microemulsion gels were optimized and characterized for in-vitro studies, pH, drug content, rheological studies and stability study. The release of rizatriptan from micro-emulsion gel prepared from carbopol 934 (98.01%) was found to be higher and prolonged than plain gel. Thus, microemulsion based gel was able to prolong drug releaseand improve drug residence time in the nasal cavity.