Advances in colonic drug delivery

Targeting drugs and delivery systems to the colonic region of the gastrointestinal tract has received considerable interest in recent years. Scientific endeavour in this area has been driven by the need to better treat local disorders of the colon such as inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease), irritable bowel syndrome and carcinoma. The colon is also receiving significant attention as a portal for the entry of drugs into the systemic circulation. A variety of delivery strategies and systems have been proposed for colonic targeting. These generally rely on the exploitation of one or more of the following gastrointestinal features for their functionality: pH, transit time, pressure or microflora. Coated systems that utilise the pH differential in the gastrointestinal tract and prodrugs that rely on colonic bacteria for release have been commercialised. Both approaches have their own inherent limitations. Many systems in development have progressed no further than the bench, while others are expensive or complex to manufacture, or lack the desired site-specificity. The universal polysaccharide systems appear to be the most promising because of their practicality and exploitation of the most distinctive property of the colon, abundant microflora.