Formulation and Evaluation of Magnetic Microspheres Of Cytarabine

Cytarabine is the drug of choice for treatment of leukemia. However, many formulations have been prepared, due to certain limitations they could not prove to be effective ones, therefore magnetic microspheres are formulated as they minimize the Reticuloendothelial clearance and target site specificity can be increased. The current study aimed to utilize nanotechnology to develop magnetic microspheres. Magnetic microspheres of cytarabine were prepared using two polymers are chitosan and sodium alginate by the continuous solvent evaporation method. Optimization was done and nine different formulations were prepared. Particle sizes, encapsulation efficiency, magnetic responsiveness, in vitro release of all the formulations were determined. The studies demonstrated that F7 was the best formulation and drug can thus be reached to the targeted site as magnetic responsiveness was also good. Novel magnetic microspheres were developed with less Reticuloendothelial clearance and target site specificity; however, further clinical investigations are necessary to evaluate its therapeutic effectiveness.