An Overview of Colon Specific Drug Delivery: Approaches and Evaluation Aspects

The Colon-specific Drug Delivery Systems (CDDS) are advantageous, especially in the targeted therapy of colonic disorders such as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), amoebiasis, and Colorectal Cancer (CRC). Site-specific drug release enables achieving a high drug level at the targeted site and reduces adverse effects. The drug targeting can be achieved with zero or minimal drug releases into the non-targeted area, especially at the stomach and small intestine sites, with maximum releases into the site of action.

This article focused primarily on reviewing the literature on product development of CDDS using approaches viz., pH-dependent, time-dependent, microbial-triggered, and combination approaches of two or more strategies for achieving possible drug releases and targeting successfully.

This review highlights the contributions of researchers in recent years to the field of CDDS, including various effective formulation designs and optimization, targeting approaches, factors affecting colon targeting, and evaluation parameters.

This review article broadly covers recent advancements in the optimization and designing of novel CDDS with newer technologies in managing colon-specific diseases. It is concluded that CDDS is advantageous for the successful targeting of drugs to the colon region for effective management of colonic diseases.