Abstract
The limited aqueous solubility of many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is responsible for their poor performance and low drug levels in blood and at target sites. Various approaches have been adopted to tackle this issue. Most recently, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) have gained attention of pharmaceutical scientists for bio-imaging, bio-sensing, gene delivery, drug solubility enhancement, and controlled and targeted drug release. Here, we have successfully incorporated the poorly water soluble antiviral drug velpatasvir (VLP) in MSN. These spherical particles were 186 nm in diameter with polydispersity index of 0.244. Blank MSN have specific surface area and pore diameter of 602.5 ± 0.7 m2/g and 5.9 nm, respectively, which reduced after successful incorporation of drug. Drug was in amorphous form in synthesized VLP-loaded silica particles (VLP-MSN) with no significant interaction with carrier. Pure VLP showed poor dissolution with progressive increment in pH of dissolution media which could limit its availability in systemic circulation after oral administration. After VLP loading in silica carriers, drug released rapidly over a wide range of pH values, i.e., 1.2 to 6.8, thus indicating an improvement in the solubility profile of VLP. These particles were biocompatible, with an LD50 of 448 µg/mL, and in-vivo pharmacokinetic results demonstrated that VLP-MSN significantly enhanced the bioavailability as compared to pure drug. The above results clearly demonstrate satisfactory in-vitro performance, biocompatibility, non-toxicity and in-vivo bioavailability enhancement with VLP-MSN.
Highlights
In the modern era approximately 40% of marketed oral drugs are deemed practically insoluble or poorly soluble [1]
Specific surface area (BSSA), pore volume and size of blank and VLP loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) were calculated by N2 adsorption/desorption analysis (Gemini VII 2390 surface area analyzer, Micromeritics, Norcross, USA) operating at −196.15 ◦C
Conditions were maintained as described in food and drug administration (FDA) i.e., 75 ± 1 rpm and 37 ◦C VLP-MSN equivalent to 100 mg VLP was exposed to two different dissolution medium with pH 1.2 and 6.8 in USP type II apparatus (Model- DT 120, Cure Apparatus, Lahore, Pakistan) for 180 min
Summary
In the modern era approximately 40% of marketed oral drugs are deemed practically insoluble or poorly soluble [1]. Soluble drugs cause many issues which include dose escalation, low bioavailability, and poor in-vitro and in-vivo drug performance [2]. Scientists have shown keen interest in mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), since they possess attractive features such as biocompatibility, non-toxicity, effective cellular uptake, possibility for drug loading and manageable drug discharge [16,17]. These favourable features make MSNs promising contenders for numerous applications, including drug delivery [3,18], theranostic [19,20], biocatalysis [21,22] and tissue engineering [23,24]. In order to resolve the aforementioned questions, we have designed VLP-loaded mesoporous nanoparticles for the very first time and extensively characterized them by various in-vitro and in-vivo techniques
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