Amorphous solid dispersion of a binary formulation with felodipine and HPMC for 3D printed floating tablets.

This study focuses on the combination of three-dimensional printing (3DP) and amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) technologies for the manufacturing of gastroretentive floating tablets. Employing hot melt extrusion (HME) and fused deposition modeling (FDM), the study investigates the development of drug-loaded filaments and 3D printed (3DP) tablets containing felodipine as model drug and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) as the polymeric carrier. Prior to fabrication, solubility parameter estimation and molecular dynamics simulations were applied to predict drug-polymer interactions, which are crucial for ASD formation. Physical bulk and surface characterization complemented the quality control of both drug-loaded filaments and 3DP tablets. The analysis confirmed a successful amorphous dispersion of felodipine within the polymeric matrix. Furthermore, the low infill percentage and enclosed design of the 3DP tablet allowed for obtaining low-density systems. This structure resulted in buoyancy during the entire drug release process until a complete dissolution of the 3DP tablets (more than 8 h) was attained. The particular design made it possible for a single polymer to achieve a zero-order controlled release of the drug, which is considered the ideal kinetics for a gastroretentive system. Accordingly, this study can be seen as an advancement in ASD formulation for 3DP technology within pharmaceutics.

Comparison of the liquisolid technique and co-milling for loading of a poorly soluble drug in inorganic porous excipients.

Drug loading into mesoporous carriers may help to improve the dissolution of poorly aqueous-soluble drugs. However, both preparation method and carrier properties influence loading efficiency and drug release. Accordingly, this study aimed to compare two preparation methods: formulation into liquisolid systems (LSS) and co-milling for their efficiency in loading the poorly soluble model drug cyclosporine A (CyA) into mesoporous magnesium aluminometasilicate Neusilin® US2 (NEU) or functionalized calcium carbonate (FCC). Scanning electron microscopy was used to visualize the morphology of the samples and evaluate the changes that occurred during the drug loading process. The solid-state characteristics and physical stability of the formulations, prepared at different drug concentrations, were determined using X-ray powder diffraction. In vitro release of the drug was evaluated in biorelevant media simulating intestinal fluid. The obtained results revealed improved drug release profiles of the formulations when compared to the milled (amorphous) CyA alone. The dissolution of CyA from LSS was faster in comparison to the co-milled formulations. Higher drug release was achieved from NEU than FCC formulations presumably due to the higher pore volume and larger surface area of NEU.

Study of Disordered Mesoporous Silica Regarding Intrinsic Compound Affinity to the Carrier and Drug-Accessible Surface Area.

There is increasing research interest in using mesoporous silica for the delivery of poorly water-soluble drugs that are stabilized in a noncrystalline form. Most research has been done on ordered silica, whereas far fewer studies have been published on using nonordered mesoporous silica, and little is known about intrinsic drug affinity to the silica surface. The present mechanistic study uses inverse gas chromatography (IGC) to analyze the surface energies of three different commercially available disordered mesoporous silica grades in the gas phase. Using the more drug-like probe molecule octane instead of nitrogen, the concept of a "drug-accessible surface area" is hereby introduced, and the effect on drug monolayer capacity is addressed. In addition, enthalpic interactions of molecules with the silica surface were calculated based on molecular mechanics, and entropic energy contributions of volatiles were estimated considering molecular flexibility. These free energy contributions were used in a regression model, giving a successful comparison with experimental desorption energies from IGC. It is proposed that a simplified model for drugs based only on the enthalpic interactions can provide an affinity ranking to the silica surface. Following this preformulation research on mesoporous silica, future studies may harness the presented concepts to guide formulation scientists.

Physiological Buffer Effects in Drug Supersaturation - A Mechanistic Study of Hydroxypropyl Cellulose as Precipitation Inhibitor.

Phosphate buffer is predominantly used instead of the more physiological bicarbonate buffer, as the latter requires a technical solution of adequate gas mixing. Recent pioneering work on how bicarbonate buffer affected drug supersaturation revealed interesting effects that call for more mechanistic understanding. Therefore, this study used hydroxypropyl cellulose as a model precipitation inhibitor and real-time desupersaturation testing was conducted with the drugs bifonazole, ezetimibe, tolfenamic acid and triclabendazole. Specific buffer effects for the different compounds were noted and overall, statistical significance was found for the precipitation induction time (p = 0.0088). Interestingly, molecular dynamics simulation revealed a conformational effect of the polymer in the presence of the different buffer types. Subsequent molecular docking trials suggested a stronger interaction energy of drug and polymer in the presence of phosphate compared to bicarbonate buffer (p =0.0010). In conclusion, a better mechanistic understanding of how different buffers affect drug-polymer interactions regarding drug supersaturation was achieved. Further mechanisms may account for the overall buffer effects and additional research on drug supersaturation is certainly needed, but it can already be concluded that bicarbonate buffering should be used more often for in vitro testing in drug development.

Hydroxypropyl Cellulose for Drug Precipitation Inhibition: From the Potential of Molecular Interactions to Performance Considering Microrheology.

There has been recent interest in using hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) for supersaturating drug formulations. This study investigated the potential for molecular HPC interactions with the model drug celecoxib by integrating novel approaches in the field of drug supersaturation analysis. Following an initial polymer characterization study, quantum-chemical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations were complemented with results of inverse gas chromatography and broadband diffusing wave spectroscopy. HPC performance was studied regarding drug solubilization and kinetics of desupersaturation using different grades (i.e., HPC-UL, SSL, SL, and L). The results suggested that the potential contribution of dispersive interactions and hydrogen bonding depended strongly on the absence or presence of the aqueous phase. It was proposed that aggregation of HPC polymer chains provided a complex heterogeneity of molecular environments with more or less excluded water for drug interaction. In precipitation experiments at a low aqueous polymer concentration (i.e., 0.01%, w/w), grades L and SL appeared to sustain drug supersaturation better than SSL and UL. However, UL was particularly effective in drug solubilization at pH 6.8. Thus, a better understanding of drug-polymer interactions is important for formulation development, and polymer blends may be used to harness the combined advantages of individual polymer grades.

Study and Computational Modeling of Fatty Acid Effects on Drug Solubility in Lipid-Based Systems.

Lipid-based systems have many advantages in formulation of poorly water-soluble drugs but issues of a limited solvent capacity are often encountered in development. One of the possible solubilization approaches of especially basic drugs could be the addition of fatty acids to oils but currently, a systematic study is lacking. Therefore, the present work investigated apparently neutral and basic drugs in medium chain triglycerides (MCT) alone and with added either caproic acid (C6), caprylic acid (C8), capric acid (C10) or oleic acid (C18:1) at different levels (5 - 20%, w/w). A miniaturized solubility assay was used together with X-ray diffraction to analyze the residual solid and finally, solubility data were modeled using the conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS). Some drug bases had an MCT solubility of only a few mg/ml or less but addition of fatty acids provided in some formulations exceptional drug loading of up to about 20% (w/w). The solubility changes were in general more pronounced the shorter the chain length was and the longest oleic acid even displayed a negative effect in mixtures of celecoxib and fenofibrate. The COSMO-RS prediction accuracy was highly specific for the given compounds with root mean square errors (RMSE) ranging from an excellent 0.07 to a highest value of 1.12. The latter was obtained with the strongest model base pimozide for which a new solid form was found in some samples. In conclusion, targeting specific molecular interactions with the solute combined with mechanistic modeling provides new tools to advance lipid-based drug delivery.

Relevance of the theoretical critical pore radius in mesoporous silica for fast crystallizing drugs.

Formulation of poorly water-soluble drugs with mesoporous silica has become a thriving field of pharmaceutics. The theoretical critical pore diameter has been introduced as a maximum value below which an undesired drug crystallization is suppressed by spatial confinement. Currently, only few values have been reported and study of fast crystallising drugs is missing especially at relevant storage temperatures. This study investigated the critical pore diameter of three model drugs with a poor glass-forming ability (i.e. haloperidol, carbamazepine and benzamide) using different mesoporous carriers (Parteck® SLC 500, Neusilin® US2, Syloid® XDP 3050 and Aeroperl® 300 Pharma) and subsequently monitored physical formulation stability over three months by X-ray powder diffraction. The selected drugs showed clear differences in their estimated critical pore diameters, whereas a temperature dependence was barely relevant for pharmaceutical storage conditions. Superior stability was noted for the formulations containing benzamide in line with its predicted relatively large critical pore diameter of 29.5 nm. Contrarily, impaired physical stability depending on drug loading was observed in the case of haloperidol representing a compound with a rather small critical pore diameter (8.4 nm). These findings confirm the importance of estimating the critical pore diameter, especially for poor glass-forming drugs.

Machine Estimation of Drug Melting Properties and Influence on Solubility Prediction.

There has been much recent interest in machine learning (ML) and molecular quantitative structure property relationships (QSPR). The present research evaluated modern ML-based methods implemented in commercial software (COSMOquick and Molecular Modeling Pro), compared to a classical group contribution approach (Joback and Reid method), to estimate melting points and enthalpy of fusion values. A broad data set of market compounds was gathered from the literature, together with new data measured by differential scanning calorimetry for drug candidates. The highest prediction accuracy was achieved by QSPR using stochastic gradient boosting. The model deviations were discussed, particularly the implications on thermodynamic solubility modeling, as this typically requires estimation of both melting point and enthalpy of fusion. The results suggested that despite considerable advancement in prediction accuracy, there are still limitations especially with complex drug candidates. It is recommended that in such cases, melting properties obtained in silico should be used carefully as input data for thermodynamic solubility modeling. Future research will show how the prediction limits of thermophysical drug properties can be further advanced by even larger data sets and other ML algorithms or also by using molecular simulations.

Mechanistic aspects of drug loading in liquisolid systems with hydrophilic lipid-based mixtures.

Despite the increasing interest in pharmaceutical use of mesoporous silica, there is still only limited knowledge on mechanisms of pore loading and subsequent drug desorption and release. Hence the aim of this work was to address the mechanistic aspects of drug loading into the mesoporous silica pores and to minimise the risk of pore clogging. Hydrophilic solvents (polysorbate 20 and polyethylene glycol 200) with high dissolving capacity for the model drug celecoxib were studied for their surface tension as well as dynamic viscosity by considering hydration. As an innovation in liquisolid systems preparation, a rather simple drug loading method on a mesoporous carrier was introduced by using semi-volatile solvent mixtures. Fast liquid loading into the pores was achieved due to the lowered viscosity and surface tension of the whole solvent system. Drug release kinetics suggested that lipid-based formulations belonging to class IV of Lipid Formulation Classification System may exhibit a lower risk of incomplete desorption from a carrier. The utilisation of volatile solvents during preparation had no negative impact on the liquisolid systems' dissolution behaviour. All prepared formulations showed similar significantly faster dissolution profiles compared to the physical mixture. The novel approach has potential to promote liquisolid applications in pharmaceutics.

Ultra-sub-stoichiometric "Dynamic" Bioconjugation Reduces Viscosity by Disrupting Immunoglobulin Oligomerization.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) are a major focus of the pharmaceutical industry, and polyclonal immunoglobulin G (IgG) therapy is used to treat a wide variety of health conditions. As some individuals require mAb/IgG therapy their entire life, there is currently a great desire to formulate antibodies for bolus injection rather than infusion. However, to achieve the required doses, very concentrated antibody solutions may be required. Unfortunately, mAb/IgG self-assembly at high concentration can produce an unacceptably high viscosity for injection. To address this challenge, this study expands the concept of "dynamic covalent chemistry" to "dynamic bioconjugation" in order to reduce viscosity by interfering with antibody-antibody interactions. Ultra-sub-stoichiometric amounts of dynamic PEGylation agents (down to the nanomolar) significantly reduced the viscosity of concentrated antibody solutions by interfering with oligomerization.

A Relative Permittivity Approach for Fast Drug Solubility Screening of Solvents and Excipients in Lipid-Based Delivery.

Drug solubility screening in solvents and lipids is central for the development of lipid-based formulations (LBFs), and any guidance to reduce the experimental workload would be highly desirable. Solubility parameters are interesting as they can be predicted in silico for a drug but they are hardly predictable for complex lipids. This paper uses a new approach to convert an in silico drug solubility parameter to an estimated relative permittivity, εr. Diverse solvents and lipid-based excipients were then experimentally tested for εr and solubility using fenofibrate as model. The typical excipients and solvents used in LBFs showed an εr range of about 2-24, and good solubility of fenofibrate was indeed evidenced in vicinity of its estimated relative permittivity 13.2 ± 2.7. Mixtures of promising excipients were studied subsequently, and the obtained εr was predictable based on the known values of the individual components. The novel permittivity approach has demonstrated its usefulness, it has much potential in early development for ranking of suitable excipients, and it gives an initial orientation to design formulations. Future research may clarify further opportunities and limits of the novel approach for LBFs.

Partial Solvation Parameters of Drugs as a New Thermodynamic Tool for Pharmaceutics.

Partial solvation parameters (PSP) have much in common with the Hansen solubility parameter or with a linear solvation energy relationship (LSER), but there are advantages based on the sound thermodynamic basis. It is, therefore, surprising that PSP has so far not been harnessed in pharmaceutics for the selection of excipients or property estimation of formulations and their components. This work introduces PSP calculation for drugs, where the raw data were obtained from inverse gas chromatography. It was shown that only a few probe gases were needed to get reasonable estimates of the drug PSPs. Interestingly, an alternative calculation of LSER parameters in silico did not reflect the experimentally obtained activity coefficients for all probe gases as well, which was attributed to the complexity of the drug structures. The experimental PSPs were proven to be helpful in predicting drug solubility in various solvents and the PSP framework allowed calculation of the different surface energy contributions. A specific benefit of PSP is that parameters can be readily converted to either classical solubility or LSER parameters. Therefore, PSP is not just about a new definition of solvatochromic parameters, but the underlying thermodynamics provides a unified approach, which holds much promise for broad applications in pharmaceutics.

New prediction methods for solubility parameters based on molecular sigma profiles using pharmaceutical materials.

Solubility parameters have been applied extensively in the chemical and pharmaceutical sciences. Particularly attractive is calculation of solubility parameters based on chemical structure and recently, new in silico methods have been proposed. Thus, screening charge densities of molecular surfaces (i.e. so-called σ-profiles) are used by the conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS) and can be employed in a quantitative structure property relationship (QSPR) to predict solubility parameters. In the current study, it was aimed to compare both in silico methods with an experimental dataset of pharmaceutical compounds, which was complemented with own measurements by inverse gas chromatography. An initial evaluation of the total solubility parameters of reference solvents resulted in excellent predictions (observed versus predicted values) with R2 of 0.855 (COSMO-RS) and 0.945 (QSPR). The subsequent main study of pharmaceutical compounds exhibited R2 values of 0.701 (COSMO-RS) and 0.717 (QSPR). The comparatively lower prediction was to some extent due to the solid state of pharmaceuticals with known conceptual limitations of the solubility parameter and possible experimental bias. Total solubility parameters were also estimated by classical group contribution methods, which had comparatively lower prediction power. Therefore, the new in silico methods are highly promising for pharmaceutical applications.

Biorelevant Drug Solubility Enhancement Modeled by a Linear Solvation Energy Relationship.

It is for the pharmaceutical sciences of vital importance to understand how drugs are solubilized in biorelevant media. However, the complexity of fasted state simulated intestinal fluid (FaSSIF) has so far hampered adequate solubility modeling. The present study focuses on apparently neutral compounds at physiological pH and a linear free energy relationship is introduced for biorelevant drug solubilization. Based on literature data of 40 compounds, the Abraham solvation descriptors were calculated from chemical structure to then predict the ratio of solubility enhancement log(SE) in FaSSIF compared to aqueous buffer solubility at pH 6.5. A suitable model was obtained with R2 of 0.810 and notable were especially the positive effect of McGowan's characteristic volume and the negative effect of drug basicity. A negative influence on log(SE) was further evidenced for dipolarity/polarizability and for the excess molar refraction descriptor. A positive solubilization effect was obtained for drug acidity and hence the tendency for proton donation, which was likely due to the different proton-accepting moieties of taurocholic acid and lecithin that are both present in the mixed colloids of FaSSIF. Overall, an improved understanding was achieved regarding the molecular features that are driving drug solubilization in biorelevant media.

A diffusing wave spectroscopy study of pharmaceutical emulsions for physical stability assessment.

Emulsions are broadly used in pharmaceutics either as intermediate products or as final dosage forms. Such disperse systems are only kinetically stabilized and therefore early detection of physical instability is highly desirable. This work employed diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) to study a series of model emulsions that were categorized, based on their composition, as either "simple" or "complex". DWS data were compared with results of droplet size imaging, apparent viscosity obtained by microfluidics, and near-infrared (NIR) analytical centrifugation. A mathematical model of the droplet mean square displacement (MSD) was modified by us regarding improved fitting of experimental data. Although the emulsions showed different types of instability like creaming and sedimentation, a good rank correlation was found between the DWS parameters and results from the comparative stability methods. Our findings indicate that DWS provides a highly attractive method for stability analysis of pharmaceutical emulsions because it requires only low sample volumes, is rapid and non-invasive. The proposed data modeling provides the means for a better understanding of emulsion microstructure that in turn will help designing quality into pharmaceutical dispersions.

Introducing diffusing wave spectroscopy as a process analytical tool for pharmaceutical emulsion manufacturing.

Emulsions are widely used for pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic applications. To guarantee that their critical quality attributes meet specifications, it is desirable to monitor the emulsion manufacturing process. However, finding of a suitable process analyzer has so far remained challenging. This article introduces diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) as an at-line technique to follow the manufacturing process of a model oil-in-water pharmaceutical emulsion containing xanthan gum. The DWS results were complemented with mechanical rheology, microscopy analysis, and stability tests. DWS is an advanced light scattering technique that assesses the microrheology and in general provides information on the dynamics and statics of dispersions. The obtained microrheology results showed good agreement with those obtained with bulk rheology. Although no notable changes in the rheological behavior of the model emulsions were observed during homogenization, the intensity correlation function provided qualitative information on the evolution of the emulsion dynamics. These data together with static measurements of the transport mean free path (l*) correlated very well with the changes in droplet size distribution occurring during the emulsion homogenization. This study shows that DWS is a promising process analytical technology tool for development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical emulsions.

Biorelevant dissolution of poorly soluble weak acids studied by UV imaging reveals ranges of fractal-like kinetics.

Much pharmaceutical research has been invested into drug dissolution testing and its mathematical modeling. Even today, there is no complete understanding of the dissolution process but novel imaging tools have been introduced into pharmaceutics that may spur further scientific advancement. We used UV imaging to study the intrinsic dissolution of various poorly soluble acidic model drugs to understand the effects of heterogeneity on early intrinsic drug dissolution using a biorelevant medium: celecoxib, ketoprofen, naproxen, and sulfathiazole. All compounds were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction and thermal analysis. Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy were employed before and after the initial dissolution phase. As a result, ranges of fractal-like dissolution behavior were found with all model compounds. Intrinsic dissolution rate exhibited a power law mainly at early time points. Subsequently, after several minutes, pseudo-equilibrium was reached with a nearly constant dissolution rate. Further research should investigate whether compounds other than acids demonstrate similar early dissolution kinetics in biorelevant media. The observed fractal-like intrinsic dissolution behavior has several pharmaceutical implications. This study primarily helps us to better understand in vitro dissolution testing, particularly on a miniaturized scale. This improved understanding of early dissolution events may advance future correlations with in vivo data. Therefore, fractal-like dissolution should be considered during biopharmaceutical modeling.

Proposal of stability categories for nano-dispersions obtained from pharmaceutical self-emulsifying formulations.

Lipid-based formulations that disperse in water as nano-droplets are of considerable pharmaceutical interest. However, there is a recent debate on which systems form stable swollen micelles rather than other thermodynamically unstable nano-emulsions. This study introduces stability categories for nano-dispersions by considering theoretical arguments of particle size and polydispersity. In a second step, 20 pharmaceutical nano-emulsifying formulations were investigated with respect to the physical stability of the aqueous dispersions. Thermo-reversibility was studied using dynamic laser light scattering, ultrasonic resonator technology and near-infrared (NIR) analytical centrifugation. As a result, the majority of the dispersions were indeed nano-emulsions that exhibited only kinetic stability. Dispersions that were stable following the heat stress test were then further evaluated with respect to an alternative compounding other than dilution from a preconcentrate. Seven dispersions were hereafter deemed to be stable in the thermodynamic sense because they exhibited the same light scattering results independent of their compounding method. In conclusion, the proposed stability categories were shown to successfully assign dispersions. This has a general importance and can, for example, be applied when nano-dispersions are used as pre-clinical formulations.