Nanofiber orodispersible films based on carboxymethyl curdlan and PEO: New delivery system for amlodipine besylate

Abstract

Curdlan has been considered as a promising food additive and eventually utilized in the fabrication of several drug delivery systems. But it has not been developed and utilized in orodispersible films due to its water insolubility. In this study, we attempted to prepare composite nanofibers using carboxymethylation curdlan (CM-CD) to improve curdlan solubility. What is more, amlodipine besylate (AB), a dihydropyridine-derivative drugs to cure cardiovascular diseases was formulated with poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) and CM-CD into the nanofiber orodispersible films (NOFs) via applying electrospinning technology. The NOFs were farther investigated with regard to their morphology, solid state and mechanical properties. The NOFs disintegration performance and dissolution behavior were also assessed before the pharmacokinetic evaluation. NMR and FT-IR showed that modified CM-CD have been obtained and uniform spinning solutions could be produced by using water/methanol mixture solvent. The SEM revealed that the composite nanofibers diameter were about 200–300 nm, and the fibers surface smoothly. AB was amorphously distributed in all these mats without drug and polymer interactions. Increasing CM-CD content in NOFs, mechanical property and disintegration and dissolution were significantly changed. In addition, the CM-CD/NOFs demonstrated a shorter Tmax with a higher bioavailability compared to the commercial AB tablets. Overall, we propose nanofibers based on CM-CD as promising platforms for buccal mucosa drug delivery.