Lipid nanoparticles with no surfactant improve oral absorption rate of poorly water-soluble drug

Abstract

A pharmacokinetic study was performed in rats to evaluate the oral absorption ratios of nanoparticle suspensions containing the poorly water-soluble compound nifedipine (NI) and two different types of lipids, including hydrogenated soybean phosphatidylcholine and dipalmitoylphosphatidylglycerol. NI-lipid nanoparticle (LN) suspensions with a mean particle size of 48.0 nm and a zeta potential of -57.2 mV were prepared by co-grinding combined with a high-pressure homogenization process. The oral administration of NI-LN suspensions to rats led to a significant increase in the NI plasma concentration, and the area under the curve (AUC) value was found to be 108 min μg mL⁻¹, indicating a 4-fold increase relative to the NI suspensions. A comparison of the pharmacokinetic parameters of the NI-LN suspensions with those of the NI solution prepared using only the surfactant polysorbate 80 revealed that although the AUC and bioavailability (59%) values were almost identical, a rapid absorption rate was still observed in the NI-LN suspensions. These results therefore indicated that lipid nanoparticles prepared using only two types of phospholipid with a mean particle size of less than 50 nm could improve the absorption of the poorly water-soluble drug.