Novel Silicone-Grafted Alginate as a Drug Delivery Scaffold: Pharmaceutical Characterization of Gliclazide-Loaded Silicone-Based Composite Microcapsules

A novel gliclazide-loaded elastomeric carbohydrate pharmaceutical vehicle was successfully developed. This new siliconized alginate platform showed pseudoplastic rheology with a zeta potential ranging from (−43.8 mV to −75.5 mV). A Buchi-B390 encapsulator was employed to formulate different types of silicone-grafted alginate microcapsules loaded with gliclazide relying on the vibrational ionic gelation technology. The use of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) to crosslink the silicone elastomer (hydroxy terminated polydimethylsiloxane) of this new platform had improved the gliclazide encapsulation (>92.13% ± 0.76) of the free-flowing composite microcapsules, which showed good mechanical durability (up to 12 h in PBS pH 6.8) and promising results to sustain the drug release.