Solubility profile of linagliptin: designing of transdermal formulation

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a common disease in current world and according to a report of 2013, 8.3% of total adult population is suffering from this disease, with diabetes mellitus type two making up 90% of the cases. There are many anti-diabetic agents available which are administered through oral and parenteral routes. One common oral agent is Linagliptin which is a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor. But oral bioavailability of this drug is only 30%, which suggests the introduction of other routes of drug delivery. Transdermal delivery of this drug might be a good choice, but before designing the formulation, solubility profile of this drug should be determined. This needs to be done to determine the solvent or co-solvent to be used and also to get the idea about the concentration of the drug that can be used. One of the most common methods of solubility determination is shake-flask method which was used in this study.