Application of design of experiments for formulation development and mechanistic evaluation of iontophoretic tacrine hydrochloride delivery

A Brief Introduction to Chemical Reaction Optimization

From the start of a synthetic chemist's training, experiments are conducted based on recipes from textbooks and manuscripts that achieve clean reaction outcomes, allowing the scientist to develop practical skills and some chemical intuition. This procedure is often kept long into a researcher's career, as new recipes are developed based on similar reaction protocols, and intuition-guided deviations are conducted through learning from failed experiments. However, when attempting to understand chemical systems of interest, it has been shown that model-based, algorithm-based, and miniaturized high-throughput techniques outperform human chemical intuition and achieve reaction optimization in a much more time- and material-efficient manner; this is covered in detail in this paper. As many synthetic chemists are not exposed to these techniques in undergraduate teaching, this leads to a disproportionate number of scientists that wish to optimize their reactions but are unable to use these methodologies or are simply unaware of their existence. This review highlights the basics, and the cutting-edge, of modern chemical reaction optimization as well as its relation to process scale-up and can thereby serve as a reference for inspired scientists for each of these techniques, detailing several of their respective applications.

Current Advances in Lipid Nanosystems Intended for Topical and Transdermal Drug Delivery Applications

Skin delivery is an exciting and challenging field. It is a promising approach for effective drug delivery due to its ease of administration, ease of handling, high flexibility, controlled release, prolonged therapeutic effect, adaptability, and many other advantages. The main associated challenge, however, is low skin permeability. The skin is a healthy barrier that serves as the body's primary defence mechanism against foreign particles. New advances in skin delivery (both topical and transdermal) depend on overcoming the challenges associated with drug molecule permeation and skin irritation. These limitations can be overcome by employing new approaches such as lipid nanosystems. Due to their advantages (such as easy scaling, low cost, and remarkable stability) these systems have attracted interest from the scientific community. However, for a successful formulation, several factors including particle size, surface charge, components, etc. have to be understood and controlled. This review provided a brief overview of the structure of the skin as well as the different pathways of nanoparticle penetration. In addition, the main factors influencing the penetration of nanoparticles have been highlighted. Applications of lipid nanosystems for dermal and transdermal delivery, as well as regulatory aspects, were critically discussed.

Application of tools and techniques of quality by design in pharmaceutical process

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the application of the tools and techniques of Quality by Design (QbD) approach in an Indian pharmaceutical drug product manufacturing company and to understand the challenges, managerial implications and lessons learned while implementing this initiative.

Design/methodology/approach

This work adopts the Action Research methodology for impurity reduction in a drug product manufacturing company in India by using the tools and techniques of QbD approach. Various QbD tools like Design of experiments, process capability evaluation and control charts were effectively utilized for the study.

Findings

As a part of QbD implementation in the organization, a specific drug product was identified and the impurity level in the product was studied. Significant variables impacting the impurity were identified and the optimum levels for the significant variables were identified through design of experiments. The solutions were implemented and the impurity levels were reduced significantly.

Research limitations/implications

Even though the article is based on a single case study related to tools and techniques of QbD in a single organization in India, the identified problem is a generic product quality related issue for any pharmaceutical drug product manufacturing company. Hence the findings of this research are applicable to pharmaceutical drug manufacturing industry in general.

Originality/value

This article illustrates the systematic usage of various tools and techniques of QbD methodology in a pharmaceutical drug product manufacturing company. The usage of Design of Experiments for process optimization and application of other tools and techniques are ready references for the practitioners and novice users in the field.

Recent Advances in Lipid-Based Vesicles and Particulate Carriers for Topical and Transdermal Application

In the recent decade, skin delivery (topical and transdermal) has gained an unprecedented popularity, especially due to increased incidences of chronic skin diseases, demand for targeted and patient compliant delivery, and interest in life cycle management strategies among pharmaceutical companies. Literature review of recent publications indicates that among various skin delivery systems, lipid-based delivery systems (vesicular carriers and lipid particulate systems) have been the most successful. Vesicular carriers consist of liposomes, ultradeformable liposomes, and ethosomes, while lipid particulate systems consist of lipospheres, solid lipid nanoparticles, and nanostructured lipid carriers. These systems can increase the skin drug transport by improving drug solubilization in the formulation, drug partitioning into the skin, and fluidizing skin lipids. Considering that lipid-based delivery systems are regarded as safe and efficient, they are proving to be an attractive delivery strategy for the pharmaceutical as well as cosmeceutical drug substances. However, development of these delivery systems requires comprehensive understanding of physicochemical characteristics of drug and delivery carriers, formulation and process variables, mechanism of skin delivery, recent technological advancements, specific limitations, and regulatory considerations. Therefore, this review article encompasses recent research advances addressing the aforementioned issues.

Transdermal iontophoretic delivery of tacrine hydrochloride: Correlation between in vitro permeation and in vivo performance in rats

The aim of present investigation is to evaluate the feasibility of transdermal iontophoretic delivery of tacrine hydrochloride in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats using anodal iontophoretic patches and to correlate plasma tacrine concentration profiles to in vitro tacrine permeation flux. In vitro skin permeation studies were carried out across artificial membrane CELGRAD^® 2400, freshly excised SD rat abdominal skin, freshly excised hairless rat abdominal skin, and frozen pig skin to examine the role of permeation membranes. Furthermore, plasma profiles with an application of 0.1-0.3mA current strength and tacrine concentration loading of 5-20mg/ml were obtained in SD rats. The tacrine plasma profiles were fitted to one-compartmental model using WinNonlin and in vivo transdermal absorption rates were then correlated to in vitro permeation profiles using various approaches. Tacrine permeation across membranes revealed current dependent interspecies differences at lower current strength application which diminished at higher current strength application, whereas, no significant difference in tacrine permeation was observed across fresh and frozen SD rat skin under 0.2mA current application. In vivo studies confirmed current and concentration dependent tacrine plasma profiles with possible tacrine depot formation under the skin in-line with earlier in vitro results. Correlation of in vivo transdermal absorption rates to in vitro permeation profiles revealed higher in vitro permeation fluxes compare to in vivo transdermal absorption rates at varied combination of current strength and concentrations. Present in vivo studies support the earlier published in vitro findings and tacrine plasma profiles show a potential to reach therapeutic effective concentration of tacrine hydrochloride to provide a platform for pre-programmed tacrine delivery.