Performance of magnetic chitosan-alginate core-shell beads for increasing the bioavailability of a low permeable drug

This work reports the synthesis and performance of magnetic chitosan-alginate core-shell beads for oral administration of small molecules in order to increase their bioavailability. For this purpose, we designed magnetic core-shell beads suitable for oral delivery that are resistant in acidic media (stomach pH), mucoadhesive, exhibit a superparamagnetic behavior and a very high entrapment efficiency. Ex vivo experiments were performed in Ussing chambers, to emphasize the effect of magnetic accumulation. The amount of drug permeated through the membrane exhibited a threefold increase with our novel drug delivery system. According to a correlation law, our ex vivo model showed that the adsorbed fraction (FA) in human is expected to reach 70% when using the magnetic retention system which is a great improvement when compared to the controls (FA=20%).