## 3 Results and Discussion
### Study of ITZ Diffusion Through a Semipermeable Membrane Using Immersion Chambers  
The content of the active substance in the prepared carbopol gels (gels 1-4) was verified. The results of this verification are presented in Table 5. The content was found to be consistent with the adopted assumptions. Subsequently, an ITZ release study from carbopol gels was conducted, employing immersion chambers to ascertain the quantity of the active substance released at designated time points. Based on [PERSON]'s law, the Higuchi model was used to describe the release profiles, according to [PERSON] et al. (2020), [PERSON] (2014), and [PERSON] (2015). The results describing the percentage of ITZ released over time were recalculated to obtain the drug concentration expressed in mg per cm\({}^{2}\) of surface per unit time (mg/cm\({}^{2}\))/h (Table S1) and the value of the rate of diffusion of the active substance through the semipermeable membrane over time was calculated (Table S2 and Figure 2). The study of the release of the active substance from the diffusion cells demonstrated a markedly elevated diffusion process rate in the samples comprising gold nanoparticles coated with ITZ (gels 1-3) relative to the control sample containing solely ITZ (gel 4) (Figure 2). The increase in the release rate occurred during the initial phase of the process (up to 15 min-point 0.5 h\({}^{0.5}\)) and was approximately twice as high as the value determined for the control (for gels 2 and 3). The difference between gel 1, which contains the largest \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Gel Sample** & **Gel 1 (AuSyn1 + ITZ)** & **Gel 2 (AuSyn2 + ITZ)** & **Gel 3 (AuSyn3 + ITZ)** & **Gel 4 (ITZ)** \\ \hline Mean [\%] & 2.864 & 2.529 & 2.649 & 2.734 \\ \hline SD & 0.227 & 0.202 & 0.276 & 0.385 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Intraconazole content in the prepared carbopol gels. Figure 2: Dependence of the diffusion rate on the time element for the obtained hydrogel formulations. AuNPs, and the control sample indicates an approximate 50% increase in the diffusion process rate. The release rate of ITZ from the diffusion cells was the highest in the 15 th minute of the study (point 0.5 h\({}^{0.5}\)), after which it began to decrease. A steady decrease in the release rate of ITZ was observed until the end of the study. [PERSON] et al. [46] successfully synthesized nanoparticles of superparamagnetic iron oxide coated with ITZ, which were then encapsulated in capsules made of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). The study of drug release kinetics demonstrated that the drug was released in a balanced manner. Furthermore, a gradual increase in the release rate was observed after 75 min, continuing until the study's conclusion at 165 min. This indicates that nanoparticles coated with ITZ may release from the capsules more slowly and consistently, reaching the highest concentration at a later point in time than nanoparticles coated with ITZ placed in a gel formulation, which achieve the highest release rate at the beginning. This is a crucial aspect of the efficacy of antifungal therapy. To the best of our knowledge, there is a paucity of literature exploring the possibility of obtaining hydrogels containing ITZ. To date, the only focus has been on the attempt to create a mucoadhesive vaginal preparation with a 2% ITZ content [47]. Furthermore, microemulsions have been developed that facilitate the local delivery of ITZ (ITZ content 1.5%) [48]. Neither preparation contained added nanoparticles. Our study thus corroborates the effectiveness of ITZ release from hydrogel formulations administered locally, which may have therapeutic utility, and demonstrates that gold nanoparticles significantly affect the diffusion of the active substance (ITZ) through the semipermeable membrane. The rate parameter for the diffusion process was also determined. This is defined as the slope of the simple dependence of the amount of released active substance with 1 cm\({}^{2}\) of semipermeable membrane to the square root of time (Figure 3).