Innovative pulmonary targeting of terbutaline sulfate-laded novasomes for non-invasive tackling of asthma: statistical optimization and comparative in vitro/in vivo evaluation.

Asthma represents a globally serious non-communicable ailment with significant public health outcomes for both pediatrics and adults triggering vast morbidity and fatality in critical cases. The ß2-adrenoceptor agonist, terbutaline sulfate (TBN), is harnessed as a bronchodilator for monitoring asthma noising symptoms. Nevertheless, the hepatic first-pass metabolism correlated with TBN oral administration mitigates its clinical performance. Likewise, the regimens of inhaled TBN dosage forms restrict its exploitation. Consequently, this work is concerned with the assimilation of TBN into a novel non-phospholipid nanovesicular paradigm termed novasomes (NVS) for direct and effective TBN pulmonary targeting. TBN-NVS were tailored based on the thin film hydration method and Box-Behnken design was applied to statistically optimize the formulation variables. Also, the aerodynamic pattern of the optimal TBN-NVS was explored via cascade impaction. Moreover, comparative pharmacokinetic studies were conducted using a rat model. TBN elicited encapsulation efficiency as high as 70%. The optimized TBN-NVS formulation disclosed an average nano-size of 223.89 nm, ζ potential of -31.17 mV and a sustained drug release up to 24 h. Additionally, it manifested snowballed in vitro lung deposition behavior in cascade impactor with a fine particle fraction of 86.44%. In vivo histopathological studies verified safety of intratracheally-administered TBN-NVS. The pharmacokinetic studies divulged 3.88-fold accentuation in TBN bioavailability from the optimum TBN-NVS versus the oral TBN solution. Concisely, the results proposed that NVS are an auspicious nanovector for TBN pulmonary delivery with integral curbing of the disease owing to target specificity.

A novel nanogel loaded with chitosan decorated bilosomes for transdermal delivery of terbutaline sulfate: artificial neural network optimization, in vitro characterization and in vivo evaluation.

The objective of the present work was to formulate, optimize, and evaluate transdermal terbutaline sulfate (TBN)-loaded bilosomes (BLS) in gel, compared to conventional oral TBN solution and transdermal gel loaded with free TBN, aiming at evading the hepatic first-pass metabolism. A face-centered central composite design was adopted to observe the effects of different formulation variables on TBN-BLS, and artificial neural network (ANN) modeling was employed to optimize TBN-BLS. TBN-BLS were prepared by a thin film hydration method integrating soybean phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol as a lipid phase and sodium deoxycholate (SDC) as a surfactant with or without the coating of chitosan (CTS). After being subjected to physicochemical characterization, TBN-BLS were enrolled in a histopathological study and pharmacokinetic investigation in a rat model. The optimized TBN chitosan-coated bilosomes (TBN-CTS-BLS) were spherical vesicles (245.13 ± 10.23 nm) with adequate entrapment efficiency (65.25 ± 5.51%) and good permeation characteristics (340.11 ± 22.34 µg/cm2). The TBN-CTS-BLS gel formulation was well-tolerated with no inflammatory signs manifested upon histopathological evaluation. The pharmacokinetic study revealed that the optimized TBN-CTS-BLS formulation successively enhanced the bioavailability of TBN by about 2.33-fold and increased t1/2 to about 6.21 ± 0.24 h as compared to the oral solution. These findings support the prospect use of BLS as active and safe transdermal carrier for TBN in the treatment of asthma. Graphical Abstract.