Current pharmaceutical strategies for efficient site specific delivery in inflamed distal intestinal mucosa

Inflammatory bowel disorder is associated with certain pathophysiological disturbances which make established techniques of colon targeting more complex and inconsistent. Probable reason is severity of inflammation which leads to more variability in normal range of triggering factors that are being exploited for colon targeting. Influential changes in pathophysiology of intestine during inflammatory bowel disorder including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis both in active as well as quiescent stage have been discussed. Also the potential of various drug delivery techniques used both orally and rectally for site specificity have been summarized in inflammatory bowel disorder. Colon targeting surely has additional advantages in drug delivery specifically for the effective treatment of local pathologies. Colon targeting in IBD state demands exhaustive cognizance about the triggering conditions responsible for activation of drug release in IBD. Therefore despite the modern techniques exploited for colonic delivery, the effective management of IBD needs additional efforts and improvisation in developing precise colonic drug delivery system in inflamed bowel. Among all investigated techniques for colon delivery in IBD, pH based system is found to be more effective in targeting colon which has been vindicated by various clinical studies. In this review various pharmaceutical strategies have been covered which have been exploited clinically for the management of inflamed intestinal conditions.