Structure and Mobility of Lactose in Lactose/Sodium Montmorillonite Nanocomposites

Controllable Drug-Release Ratio and Rate of Doxorubicin-Loaded Natural Composite Films Based on Polysaccharides: Evaluation of Transdermal Permeability Potential

In drug delivery systems, it is crucial to develop a drug carrier capable of regulating both the drug-release rate and the drug-release ratio. This study proposes a method for controlling the drug-release ratio/rate using doxorubicin-loaded natural composite films composed of polysaccharides (cellulose, chitin, chitosan, or cellulose nanocrystal) and mineral substances (MMT: montmorillonite). We succeeded in controlling the doxorubicin release ratio from 25 to 88% depending on the natural polysaccharide. Likewise, the reduction rate differed depending on the type of natural polysaccharide, whereas the reduction in release was achieved by mixing MMT. Cellulose had the largest reduction in the drug release ratio, approximately 30%, and cellulose nanocrystals showed little change. Furthermore, we conducted a skin permeation test on the natural polysaccharide film with the highest release rate to confirm its transdermal permeability potential. The polysaccharide doxorubicin-loaded film sustainably released doxorubicin for 2 days, which indicated the potential of a carrier for DDS applications.

Binder jetting 3D printing of challenging medicines: from low dose tablets to hydrophobic molecules

Increasing access to additive manufacturing technologies utilising easily available desktop devices opened novel ways for formulation of personalized medicines. It is, however, challenging to propose a flexible and robust formulation platform which can be used for fabrication of tailored solid dosage forms composed of APIs with different properties (e.g., hydrophobicity) without extensive optimization. This manuscript presents a strategy for formulation of fast dissolving tablets using binder jetting (BJ) technology. The approach is demonstrated using two model APIs: hydrophilic quinapril hydrochloride (QHCl, logP = 1.4) and hydrophobic clotrimazole (CLO, logP = 5.4). The proposed printing method uses inexpensive well known and easily available FDA approved pharmaceutical excipients. The obtained model tablets had uniform content of the drug, excellent mechanical properties and highly porous structure resulting in short disintegration time and fast dissolution rate. The tablets could be scaled and obtained in predesigned shapes and sizes. The proposed method may find its application in the early stages of drug development where high flexibility of the formulation is required and the amount of available API is limited.

Powder compression mechanics of spray-dried lactose nanocomposites

The aim of this study was to investigate the structural impact of the nanofiller incorporation on the powder compression mechanics of spray-dried lactose. The lactose was co-spray-dried with three different nanofillers, that is, cellulose nanocrystals, sodium montmorillonite and fumed silica, which led to lower micron-sized nanocomposite particles with varying structure and morphology. The powder compression mechanics of the nanocomposites and physical mixtures of the neat spray-dried components were evaluated by a rational evaluation method with compression analysis as a tool, using the Kawakita equation and the Shapiro-Konopicky-Heckel equation. Particle rearrangement dominated the initial compression profiles due to the small particle size of the materials. The strong contribution of particle rearrangement in the materials with fumed silica continued throughout the whole compression profile, which prohibited an in-depth material characterization. However, the lactose/cellulose nanocrystals and the lactose/sodium montmorillonite nanocomposites demonstrated high yield pressure compared with the physical mixtures indicating increased particle hardness upon composite formation. This increase has likely to do with a reinforcement of the nanocomposite particles by skeleton formation of the nanoparticles. In summary, the rational evaluation of mechanical properties done by applying powder compression analysis proved to be a valuable tool for mechanical evaluation for this type of spray-dried composite materials, unless they demonstrate particle rearrangement throughout the whole compression profile.