STABILITY OF HATER IN OIL EMULSIONS USING HIGH MOLECULAR WEIGHT EMULSIFIERS

Quality by design prospects of pharmaceuticals application of double emulsion method for PLGA loaded nanoparticles

Abstract

QbD approach empowers the pharma researchers to minimize the number of experimental trials and time. It helps identify the significant, influential factors such as critical material attributes, critical formulation variables, and critical process parameters, which may significantly impact the quality of the products. Poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer, has gained an immense potential and wide range of applications as a carrier for manufacturing of polymeric nanoparticle drug delivery systems as per US-FDA and European Medicine Agency for drug delivery. The double emulsion method for preparing PLGA nanoparticles to encapsulate hydrophilic drugs has attracted interest in manufacturing processes. The double emulsion is a two-step process consisting of two different emulsification, making the process more complicated. The stability of nanoparticles obtained by a double emulsion method remains questionable due to the many formulations and process attributes. Currently, PLGA based nanoparticles prepared by a double emulsion technique are an alternative pharmaceutical manufacturing operation for getting the quality product by employing the Quality by Design approach. This present review has discussed the QbD elements to elucidate the effect of material attributes, formulation, and process variables on the critical quality attributes of the drug product, such as particle size distribution, encapsulation efficiency, etc. The components of a double emulsion, characteristics of drugs, polymers, and stabilizers used have been discussed in detail in this review.

Graphic abstract

Dynamic forces between emulsified water drops coated with Poly-Glycerol-Poly-Ricinoleate (PGPR) in canola oil

The dynamic collision of emulsified water drops in the presence of non-ionic surfactants plays a crucial role in many practical applications. Interaction force between water drops coated with non-ionic food grade surfactants is expected to exhibit rich dynamic behavior that is not yet explored. The collision forces between immobilized water drops in canola oil in the presence of a well-known food grade surfactant polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) are measured at concentrations well below typically used to form stable emulsions. An extension or kink, attributed to a short-range attractive interaction due to PGPR bridging between the drops, was observed in the retract portion of the force curves at higher applied forces or slower collision velocities. The Stokes-Reynolds-Young-Laplace (SRYL) model was used to calculate theoretical force curves. For higher collisions velocities, the agreement between the calculated and experiment data was acceptable, but the SRYL model failed to describe the extension or kink feature observed at slower velocities below. Both the AFM data and the comparison to the model calculation indicated the presence of a short-range attractive force, not of a hydrodynamic origin, attributed to the bridging and extension of PGPR molecules on the surface of water drops below saturation of the interface.