Preparation and Characterization of Amylose Inclusion Complexes for Drug Delivery Applications.

Amylose complexes with nimesulide (NMS) and praziquantel (PZQ) were prepared by a simple and low cost method, so that high yield (>57%) and drug content (up to 68.16%) were achieved. The influence of drug:polymer ratio, temperature, and presence of palmitic acid on the complexes properties was evaluated. Differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and nuclear magnetic resonance data evidenced the drug-polymer interaction and the formation of inclusion complexes with semi-crystalline structures related to type II complexes. The drug release rates from complexes were lowered in acid media (pH 1.2) and phosphate buffer (pH 6.9). The presence of pancreatin promoted a significant acceleration of the release rates of both drugs, evidencing the enzymatic degradability of these complexes. The highest enzymatic resistance of PZQ1:30PA60°C complex makes the release time longer and the full release of PZQ in phosphate buffer with pancreatin occurred at 240 min, whereas the complexes with NMS and PZQ1:5PA90°C did it in 60 min. According to the Weibull model, the drug release process in media without enzyme occurred by complex mechanisms involving diffusion, swelling, and erosion. In media containing pancreatin, generally, the better correlation was with the first order, evidencing the acceleration of the release rates of drugs in the early stages of the test, due to enzymatic degradation.

Effect of drying technique on some physical properties of cross-linked high amylose/pectin mixtures.

Polymers mixtures as well as cross-linking reactions are approaches that have been used successfully to modulate the polymers characteristics in order to improve the control over drug release rate. High amylose and pectin are polysaccharides frequently used to prepare drug delivery systems. Since the drying technique can strongly influence the properties of such systems, the aim of this work was to characterize high amylose/pectin mixtures cross-linked with sodium trimetaphosphate and dried by different techniques - oven and lyophilization. The results showed that samples dried by lyophilization presented reduced particle size, higher porosity and higher swelling ability than the samples dried in oven. Besides, lower thermal stability and different diffraction patterns showed by the former particles should reflect the structural changes as a function of drying technique.

Physical properties of pectin-high amylose starch mixtures cross-linked with sodium trimetaphosphate.

Pectin-high amylose starch mixtures (1:4; 1:1; 4:1) were cross-linked at different degrees and characterized by rheological, thermal, X-ray diffraction and NMR analyses. For comparison, samples without cross-linker addition were also prepared and characterized. Although all samples behaved as gels, the results evidenced that the phosphorylation reaction promotes the network strengthening, resulting in covalent gels (highest critical stress, G' and recovery %). Likewise, cross-linked samples presented the highest thermal stability. However, alkaline treatment without cross-linker allowed a structural reorganization of samples, as they also behaved as covalent gels, but weaker than those gels from cross-linked samples, and presented higher thermal stability than the physical mixtures. X-ray diffractograms also evidenced the occurrence of physical and chemical modifications due to the cross-linking process and indicated that samples without cross-linker underwent some structural reorganization, resulting in a decrease of crystallinity. The chemical shift of resonance signals corroborates the occurrence of structural modifications by both alkaline treatment and cross-linking reaction.