Ihab I. Al-Khalifa
Abstract
Vitamin B12 is an important water-soluble vitamin which is found in a variety of food such as fish, shellfish, meat, and dairy products. It helps maintain healthy nerve cells and red blood cells, as well as aid in rapid DNA production during cell division. The daily requirement of vitamin B12 for the human body is approximately 1-25 µg . In 1960 introduced long-acting depot antipsychotic drug as the first long acting medications. Depot formulations providing further reductions in morbidity and mortality. Because they bypass the gastrointestinal tract, Depot treatments decrease the amount of medication needed and reduce certain peripheral side effects. Understanding the clinical and compliance of patients from the use of single dose with multiple and consecutive treatment of B12, we have developed long-term implantable medication delivery loaded with vitamin B12. The proposed method of controlled drug delivery uses sterile implants processed with a Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) polymer with a delivery interval of up to one month depending on polymer composition, and drug loading. In this study, 3 goals were addressed: 1: To formulate six different batches of biodegradable polymer implants loaded with vitamin 12 and target profile shown in Tables 1. 2: To characterize the formulated implants and establish an in vitro release for the B12 as a function of time. 3: Perform in vivo study and measure the serum concentration of B12 released from implants subcutaneously inserted into rats. Accomplishment of these three goals could provide the feasibility of controlled release vitamin B12 implants for human treatment for vitamin deficiency.