Formulation and Evaluation of Atenolol Topical Gel: A Novel Approach for Penetration Enhancement Formulation

Transdermal gel has gained more and more importance because the gel based formulations are better percutaneously absorbed than other topical dosage forms. Hypertension is defined by an elevation of the systolic or diastolic threshold or both. Atenolol, a class III molecule is a selective cardio-vascular β-blocker, which block the synthesis of Adenylate Cyclase there by prevents the formation of intra cellular messenger, cyclic AMP responsible for the activation of various protein kinases responsible for phosphorylation. The present work involve in the formulation of Atenolol Transdermal gels by dispersion method with different ratios of polymers for the sustained release of the drug through Stratum Corneum using Di-Methyl Sulphoxide, as penetration enhancer for the treatment of hypertension. All the formulations were evaluated for physico-chemical parameters and all the values were obtained within the limits. The in-vitro diffusion studies were carried out against dialysis membrane and ex-vivo permeation studies using albino rat abdominal skin by Franz diffusion cells. On hydration, osmotic pressure breaks & drug release follow zero order. Among fifteen formulations, In-vitro % Drug Release values of the optimized formulations were figured to be 98.22, 96.42 & 94.62 for F2, F11 & F13 respectively. The drug permeated/cm2 through skin was also determined by flux value for optimized formulations F2, F11 and F13 was 0.073 gmH-1cm-2, 0.069 gmH-1cm-2 and 0.082 gmH-1cm-2 respectively.