Morteza Saffari

A novel formulation for solubility and content uniformity enhancement of poorly water-soluble drugs using highly-porous mannitol.

The present study investigates the enhancement of the dissolution rates for poorly-water soluble drugs by a new adsorption method. The results show that the current adsorption method enhanced the dissolution rate of both nifedipine and indomethacin to a significant extent by nano-confinement of drugs into the pore spaces of highly-porous excipients. Porous mannitol particles with a surface area and pore volume of 6.3 ± 0.1 m(2) g(-1) and 0.036 ± 0.002 ml g(-1), respectively, were drug loaded in two different concentrations of indomethacin and nifedipine. The results of drug loading for nifedipine showed an increase from 3.2 ± 0.1% w/w for a 0.08 M drug solution to 9.1 ± 0.3% w/w drug loading for a 0.16 M drug solution, while indomethacin had slightly better performance for the adsorption process, with 4.1 ± 0.2% w/w and 12.6 ± 0.4% w/w for 0.08 M and 0.16 M concentrations of indomethacin, respectively, in the final formulation. This result also indicated highly-uniform blends with a percentage relative standard deviation of less than 4% for drug-loaded mannitol in both nifedipine and indomethacin. This method gave a significant enhancement of the dissolution rate for both drugs due to nano-confinement of drugs into porous excipients and high solubility of porous mannitol, with 80% drug release within the first 15 min for the drug-loaded samples.

Incorporation of acetaminophen as an active pharmaceutical ingredient into porous lactose

A new formulation method for solid dosage forms with drug loadings from 0.65 ± 0.03% to 39 ± 1% (w/w) of acetaminophen (APAP) as a model drug has been presented. The proposed method involves the production of highly-porous lactose with a BET surface area of 20 ± 1 m(2)/g as an excipient using a templating method and the incorporation of drug into the porous structure by adsorption from a solution of the drug in ethanol. Drug deposition inside the carrier particles, rather than being physically distributed between them, eliminated the potential drug/carrier segregation, which resulted in excellent blend uniformities with relative standard deviations of less than 3.5% for all drug formulations. The results of DSC and XRD tests have shown deposition of nanocrystals of APAP inside the nanopores of lactose due the nanoconfinement phenomenon. FTIR spectroscopy has revealed no interaction between the adsorbed drug and the surface of lactose. The final loaded lactose particles had large BET surface areas and high porosities, which significantly increased the crushing strengths of the produced tablets. In vitro release studies in phosphate buffer (pH 5.8) have shown an acceptable delivery performance of 85% APAP release within 7 minutes for loaded powders filled in gelatin capsules.

Improving the dissolution rate of hydrophobic drugs through encapsulation in porous lactose as a new biocompatible porous carrier

T he dissolution rates of indomethacin (IMC) and nifedipine (NIF) as poorly water-soluble model drugs have been significantly improved by encapsulating their molecules in the porous structure of engineered-particles of lactose as a new biocompatible porous carrier. The formulation method used in this study utilized a template-based spray-drying technique for in-situ production of porous lactose followed by two solvent-based drug-loading methods: (i) adsorption from organic solution, and (ii) incipient wetness impregnation to incorporate the drugs inside the porous lactose. In both cases, the results of DSC and XRD have revealed the deposition of nano-sized crystals of drugs inside the nanopores due to the nanoconfinement phenomenon. Greater extents of drug loadings have been achieved during the indomethacin adsorption due to the hydrogen-bonding interaction with the surface of lactose, as determined by FTIR spectroscopy. The in vitro release studies in simulated gastric fluid (SGF) have shown faster release rates for the impregnated particles compared with drug-loaded particles via the adsorption method.