Design and Development of Gastro-retentive Drug Delivery System for Trazodone Hydrochloride: a Promising Alternative to Innovator’s Controlled-Release Tablet

Trazodone hydrochloride (TZN) is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor that treats a major depressive disorder. It exhibits a short plasma half-life of 4.1 h and shows pH-dependent solubility. Above its pKa (6.74), solubility of TZN is very low, affecting its dissolution in the lower part of GIT. Hence, the present work aimed to develop gastro-retentive floating tablet of TZN. Central composite design was employed to optimize the formulation. Formulation variables like the concentration of HPMC-K100M, Polyox WSR 303 Leo, and sodium bicarbonate were evaluated for the responses like floating lag time and drug release. X-ray imaging study was performed on rabbits to determine the in vivo gastric retention of the optimized formulation. The accelerated stability study was conducted on optimized tablets as per ICH guidelines. Floating lag time and f 2 value of the optimized formulation were found to be 2.51±0.02 min and 62.79, respectively. X-ray imaging studies in rabbits determined the in vivo gastro retention time. After 12 h of administration, tablet remained in the gastric region, indicating better retentive power. Accelerated stability studies showed sufficient formulation stability even after 3 months of storage. All these studies depict that the floating gastro-retentive system could be used as an alternative to the innovator formulation. Graphical Abstract