Santhi Kumaraswamy’s scientific contributions

A sensitive and reproducible high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed and validated for the quantification of prochlorperazine sustained release tablets in human plasma, after solid phase extraction (SPE). Best chromatographic resolution wasachieved on a reverse-phase Phenomenex C₁₈ column using the mobile phase consisted of a mixture of 20 mM disodium hydrogen ortho phosphate–acetonitrile (95:5) in an isocratic elution with a total run time of 12 min. Linear plot was obtained in the concentration range of 15–300 ng/ml (r² = 0.99). Lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was found to be 15 ng/ml. Average recovery of the analyte was found to range from 98.25 to 99.13% in plasma at the concentrations of 45, 150 and 270 ng/ml. The intra and inter-day relative standard deviations of low quality control (LQC), medium quality control (MQC) and high quality control (HQC) of prochlorperazine were found to be 2.63, 3.25, 2.83 and 3.57, 5.88 and 3.78 respectively. The present method was successfully applied in the pharmacokinetic study of prochlorperazine in human plasma.

Purpose: The aim of this work was to formulate sodium alginate nanospheres of amphotericin B by controlled gellification method and to evaluate the role of the nanospheres as a “passive carrier” in targeted antifungal therapy. Methods: Sodium alginate nanospheres of amphotericin B were prepared by controlled gellification method, and the particle size analysis was carried out by scanning electron microscopy. The carrier capacity of sodium alginate was evaluated in terms of drug to polymer ratio. In vitro release study was carried out on all drug loaded nanospheres by the dialysis method. Release kinetics of drug from different drug loaded nanospheres was also determined. The in vivo antifungal efficacy of nanospheres bound drug vis-à-vis the free drug was evaluated in candidiasis- induced mice models. Results: Preparation of nanospheres through controlled gellification method yielded particles with a size range of 419.6 ± 0.28 nm. Studies on drug to polymer ratio showed a linear relationship between concentration of drug and drug loading capacity. In vitro release kinetic study revealed that the release of drug from the nanospheres followed Fickian diffusion. In vivo studies showed that the nanosphere-bound drug produced a higher antifungal efficacy than the free drug. Conclusion: The formulated sodium alginate nanospheres containing amphotericin B was found to have better antifungal activity when compared to the free drug and also yielded sustained in vitro release.