Engineering of 3D printed personalized polypills for the treatment of the metabolic syndrome

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Metabolic syndrome is a collection of abnormalities, including at least three of the following insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, obesity, inflammation, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. 3D printed solid dosage forms have emerged as a promising tool enabling the fabrication of personalized medicines and offering solutions that cannot be achieved by industrial mass production. Most attempts found in the literature to manufacture polypills for this syndrome contain just two drugs. However, most fixed-dose combination (FDC) products in clinical practice required the use of three or more drugs. In this work, Fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printing technology coupled with hot-melt extrusion (HME) has been successfully applied in the manufacture of polypills containing nifedipine (NFD), as an antihypertensive drug, simvastatin (SMV), as an antihyperlipidemic drug, and gliclazide (GLZ) as an antiglycemic drug. Hanssen solubility parameters (HSPs) were utilized as predictors to guide the formation of amorphous solid dispersion between drug and polymer to ensure miscibility and enhanced oral bioavailability. The HSP varied from 18.3 for NFD, 24.6 for SMV, and 7.0 for GLZ while the total solubility parameter for the excipient mixture was 27.30.5. This allowed the formation of an amorphous solid dispersion in SMV and GLZ 3D printed tablets compared to NFD which was partially crystalline. Popypill showed a dual release profile combining a faster SMV release (< 6h) with a 24 h sustained release for NDF and GLZ. This work demonstrated the transformation of FDC into dynamic dose-personalized polypills.