Vol.:(0123456789) AAPS PharmSciTech (2024) 25:18 https://doi.org/10.1208/s12249-024-02742-9 RESEARCH ARTICLE Self‑assembling Organogels Loaded with Tenoxicam for Local Intensive Pain and Inﬂammation Cure: In Vitro and In Vivo Correlation Shaaban K. Osman 1 · Taher M. Yassin 2 · Arafat Abdelzaher 3 · Fatma Ahmed 4 · Ahmed M. Mohammed 1 · Ahmed A. H. Abdellatif 1,5 · Khalid I. Saleh 1 · Wael A. Mahdi 6 · Sultan Alshehri 6 · Mohamed A. El Hamd 7,8 · Hatem Sarhan 9 Received: 29 September 2023 / Accepted: 5 January 2024 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists 2024 Abstract Due to tenoxicam (TX)’s poor aqueous solubility (0.072 mg/ml), it is poorly absorbable in the GIT, and the long-term oral administration of TX may cause severe GIT disturbances. Topical administration of TX can help in bypassing the GIT adverse eﬀects. Therefore, in the present work, we constructed diﬀerent pluronic/lecithin organogels (PLOs) for topical delivery of TX. PLO was constructed simply via direct mixing of an aqueous pluronic solution with lecithin solution. The prepared PLO formulations were characterized for their physicochemical properties including pH, drug content, visual inspection, viscosity, and spreadability. Also, the in vitro release and kinetic studies were carried out to investigate the mechanism of drug release. Moreover, the in vivo studies were carried out by investigating the anti-inﬂammatory and analgesic activities using albino male rats. The results showed that the modiﬁed PLOs have good physicochemical properties. The viscosity of the modiﬁed gels is a direct proportionality with both lecithin and pluronic concentrations. Also, subsequently, the drug release rate is directly proportional to gel viscosity. Moreover, the in vivo studies showed that the modiﬁed PLOs (F19) showed a signiﬁcant ( < 0.05%) paw edema inhibition and pain analgesia compared with other investigated groups. Also, the results indicated that the increase in dose is accompanied by higher activity and a longer duration of action which extended to 12 h. Hence, the modiﬁed PLOs are promising safe candidates or vehicles for eﬀective TX loading with sustained delivery behavior. Keywords analgesia · anti-inﬂammatory · lecithin · PLO · pluronic · tenoxicam · in vitro · in vivo · viscosity Novel Skin Drug Delivery Technology * Shaaban K. Osman shaabanosman@azhar.edu.eg * Mohamed A. El Hamd aboelhamdmohamed@su.edu.sa Wael A. Mahdi wmahdi@ksu.edu.sa Sultan Alshehri salshehri1@ksu.edu.sa 1 Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Azhar University, Assiut 71524, Egypt 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Minoﬁa University, Minoﬁa, Egypt 3 General Authority for Health Insurance, Qena, Egypt 4 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, Sohag 82524, Egypt 5 Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, Qassim University, 51452 Buraydah, Saudi Arabia 6 Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, 11451, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 7 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Shaqra University, 11961 Shaqra, Saudi Arabia 8 Department of Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, South Valley University, Qena 83523, Egypt 9 Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Minia University, Minia, Egypt