Self-nanoemulsifying Formulation Research Articles

Design, Development and Evaluation of Solid Form of Liquid Self-Nanoemulsifying Formulation for improving the Oral Bioavailability of Itraconazole

The aim of the present study is to improve the dissolution rate and developed Itraconazole solid powder. Cotton seed oil, tween 80 and transcutol were selected as key ingredients to formulated self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system. Ternary phase diagrams were constructed, several formulations were designed. These formulations were characterized and evaluated for parameters such as thermodynamic stability, emulsifying rate, robustness to dilution and pH effects, globules size, zeta potential, in vitro study etc. The optimized formulation has globules size of 141.20±0.69 nm, pdi 0.29±0.04, zeta potential 11.2±0.69 mV and fast dissolution as within 30 min with more than 90% drug released. Further cytotoxicity studies of optimized formulation revealed safe formulation. Using neusilin US2 as solid adsorbent method to transformed the optimized formulation into powder form. It was further characterized and evaluated and the obtained results are acceptable. In vitro drug released of solid self-nanoemulsifying formulation and liquid self-nanoemulsifying formulation has almost similar. Thus, can conclude that implementation of solid approach of this strategy could be considered as alternative approach.

Simultaneous Determination of Cholecalciferol and 25- Hydroxycholecalceferol in Lipid-based Self-nanoemulsifying formulations and Marketed Product Vi-de 3® by UHPLC-UV

Background: The purpose of the current study was to develop a selective, precise, fast economical and advanced reverse phase ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC UV) method and validate it for the simultaneous estimation of cholecalciferol and its analogue 25- hydroxycholecalciferol in lipid-based self-nano emulsifying formulation (SNEDDS). Methods: The chromatographic separation was simply performed on a Dionex® UHPLC systems (Ultimate 3000, Thermo scientific) by using HSS C18 (2.1x50 mm, 1.8 µm) analytical column. The elution was carried out isocratically with the mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and methanol in the ratio of 50:50 %v/v with a flow rate of 0.4 ml/min, followed by the UV detection at 265 nm. The injection volume was 1µl and the column temperature was maintained at 45°C. FDA regulatory guidelines were used to develop and validate the method. Results: The current developed UHPLC-UV method was found to be rapid (run time 2 min), and selective with the high resolution of cholecalciferol and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (RT=0.530 min & 1.360 min) from different lipid matrices. The method was highly sensitive (Limit of Detection and Lower Limit of Quantification were 0.13 ppm & 0.51ppm, and 0.15 ppm & 0.54 ppm, respectively). The linearity, accuracy and precision were determined as suitable over the concentration range of 0.5-50.0 ppm for both the analytes. Conclusion: The proposed UHPLC-UV method can be used for the determination of cholecalciferol and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol in SNEDDS and marketed Vi-De 3® as pure forms (intact) with no interference of excipients or drug-related substances.

Antibacterial Activity of Fusidic Acid and Sodium Fusidate Nanoparticles Incorporated in Pine Oil Nanoemulgel.

PurposeFusidic acid (FA) and sodium fusidate (SF) have problems in their skin penetration and stability resulting in a reduction in their potency; therefore, the objective of this study was to develop FA and SF nanoemulgels to improve the antibacterial activity of the drugs.MethodsFA and SF nanoemulgel formulations were prepared by the incorporation of FA and SF nanoemulsions with Carbopol hydrogel. First, the drugs were screened for their solubility in different oils and surfactants to choose the suitable oil and surfactants for the drugs, and then the drug nanoemulsion formulations were prepared by a self-nanoemulsifying technique using Tween 80, Span 20 and pine oil. The drug nanoemulgels were evaluated for their particle size, polydispersity index (PDI), rheological behaviour, drug release and anti-microbial activity.ResultsBased on the solubility test, pine oil was the best solubilising oil for both drugs, Tween 80 and Span 20 showed the highest solubilising ability for both the drugs among the surfactants; therefore, they were chosen as surfactant and co-surfactant, respectively. The optimum self-nanoemulsifying formulations showed a particle size for fusidic acid and Sodium fusidate of 140.58 nm and 151.86 nm respectively, and both showed a low PDI below 0.3. After incorporating both drug SNEDDS formulations with Carbopol at different concentrations, the results of the drugs particle size and PDI showed no significant difference. The zeta potential results for both drugs nanoemulgels showed a negative potential with more than 30 mV. All nanoemulgel formulations showed pseudo-plastic behaviour with the highest release pattern at 0.4% Carbopol. The antibacterial activity of both drug nanoemulgel formulations showed superiority over the market product.ConclusionNanoemulgel is a promising delivery system for FA and SF that helps in improving the stability and antibacterial activities of the drugs.

UHPLC Method Development for Determining Sitagliptin and Dapagliflozin in Lipid-Based Self-Nanoemulsifying Systems as Combined Dose in Commercial Products and its Application to Pharmacokinetic Study of Dapagliflozin in Rats

Anew simple, precise, selective and reproducible reversed-phase ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-UHPLC) method has been developed and validated for the first time in simultaneous determination of two anti-diabetic drugs, sitagliptin (SN) and dapagliflozin (DN), in lipid-based self-nanoemulsifying formulations as a new combined preparation dose. The chromatographic separation was carried out on a reversed-phase Acquity® BEH C18 column using methanol–acetonitrile–water mixture at 24/18/58 (%v/v/v) ratio as the mobile phase. The isocratic flow rate was 0.4 mL/min with a run time of 6 min. The UV detection of both SN and DN was performed at 210 nm. The method was validated over a concentration range of 100 – 10000 ng/mL (r2 = 0.9997 and 0.9999 for SN and DN, respectively). The selectivity, specificity, recovery, accuracy and precision for determining SN and DN in lipid-based formulation were validated. The lower limits of detection and quantitation of the method were 27 and 89 ng mL–1 for SN and 19 and 61 ng mL–1 for DN, respectively. The intra- and inter-day coefficients of variation were less than 4%. The validated method has been successfully applied to quantify both SN and DN in self-nanoemulsifying formulation of combined dosage form. In addition, the proposed method was also applied for in vivo pharmacokinetic study using an animal model (rat) to further illustrate the scope and application of the proposed method.

QbD-Based Development of Cationic Self-nanoemulsifying Drug Delivery Systems of Paclitaxel with Improved Biopharmaceutical Attributes

The present studies describe quality-by-design-based design and characterization of cationic self-nanoemulsifying formulations of paclitaxel for improving its biopharmaceutical attributes. Solubility and phase titration experiments were designed to select the lipidic and emulsifying excipients. Two different types of lipidic nanoformulations were developed using medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) and long-chain triglycerides (LCTs). The nanoformulations were optimized by mixture designs and subjected to evaluation for globule size, zeta potential, drug release, and intestinal permeability. Following apt mathematical modeling, the optimum nanoformulation was earmarked using numerical optimization. Further, cationic formulations were developed for both LCT- and MCT-containing formulations and subjected to performance evaluation. The optimized formulations were extensively evaluated, where an in vitro drug release study indicated 2.7-fold improvement in dissolution rate from optimized cationic nanoformulations over powder pure drug. Ex vivo and in situ evaluation performed on Wistar rats exhibited nearly six- to eightfold enhancement in permeation and absorption parameters of the drug for the optimized cationic nanoformulation as compared to the pure paclitaxel. Pharmacokinetic studies indicated nearly 13.4-fold improvement in AUC and Cmax, along with 1.8-fold reduction in Tmax of the drug from cationic nanoformulations as compared to the pure drug suspension. Moreover, nanoformulation containing long-chain lipids exhibited superior performance (1.18-fold improvement in drug absorption) over medium-chain lipids. Cytotoxicity evaluation of cationic nanoformulations on MCF-7 cells revealed significant reduction in growth vis-à-vis the pure drug. Overall, the current paper reports successful systematic development of paclitaxel-loaded cationic self-nanoemulsifying systems with distinctly improved biopharmaceutical performance.

Influence of sonication and in vitro evaluation of nifedipine self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system

In order to develop a self-nanoemulsifying system, three components, olive oil, Tween 80, and Capmul, were used to construct a ternary phase diagram that helped to find the optimum formulation, which was loaded with nifedipine. The effect of sonication on drug loading was also evaluated. After that, measurement of the droplet size, size distribution, zeta potential, and scanning electron microscopy were conducted for evaluation and characterisation of the formulations. The phase diagram of four formulations showed nanosizes below 200 nm; however, only one was selected to be loaded with nifedipine. The selected formulation had the lowest droplet size of 98 nm and size distribution 0.192, and was composed of 48% Tween 80, 32% Capmul, and 20% olive oil. The nifedipine self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS) showed a significant change in the particle size (97 nm) and size distribution (0.257) after sonication. Its zeta potential was -32.3 mV indicating good stability. The SEM photographs of nifedipine showed particles with spherical shape and smooth surface. Finally, a self-nanoemulsifying formulation containing nifedipine, loaded in olive oil, was successfully prepared by mixing the oil with various types of surfactants and co-surfactants. A significant nifedipine self-nanoemulsifying system was developed and significantly improved accordingly.

Optimization of Quality Attributes and Atomic Force Microscopy Imaging of Reconstituted Nanodroplets in Baicalin Loaded Self-Nanoemulsifying Formulations.

The objective of the study was to develop baicalin loaded liquid self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (BSNEDDS) and to characterize them by physicochemical methods in order to optimize the composition and quality attributes. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was utilized to evaluate the morphological characteristics and size distribution of reconstituted nanoemulsion droplets with a new sample preparation method for the elucidation of individual nanodroplets without any signs of coalescence. Response surface methodology and desirability approach was used to select the optimized composition related to droplet size, zeta-potential, polydispersity index (PDI), and turbidity characteristics. Droplet size distribution measured by dynamic light scattering method was highly desirable with 52.87 ± 0.5322 nm, which was confirmed by AFM imaging. The optimized formula contains Peceol® (14.29%, w/w), Kolliphor® EL (57.14%, w/w), and Transcutol® P (28.57%, w/w). Long-term stability analysis did not show any significant change in droplet size or PDI over the investigated period. More than 40.5-times solubility improvement was achieved with the optimized BSNEDDS correlated to solubility of baicalin in distilled water. In vitro dissolution studies at pH 1.2 and pH 6.8 were performed and revealed that the optimized BSNEDDS formula showed pH independent drug dissolution, and 100% of incorporated baicalin dissolved within five minutes in rapidly dispersing nanodroplets.

Role of Alternative Lipid Excipients in the Design of Self-Nanoemulsifying Formulations for Fenofibrate: Characterization, in vitro Dispersion, Digestion and ex vivo Gut Permeation Studies.

Background: The choice of lipid excipients and their origin are crucial determinant factors in the design of self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS).Aim: To investigate the aspects of alternative excipients which can influence the development of efficient SNEDDS and determine the fate of fenofibrate in aqueous media.Methods: SNEDDS of two groups (a and b) were developed using Cremercoor MCT/Capmul MCM and Kollisolv MCT/Imwitor 742 blended oils and water soluble surfactants (to improve lipid polarity) for the model anti-cholesterol drug fenofibrate. Visual assessment was employed and droplet size measurement was taken into initial consideration for optimized SNEDDS. Further SNEDDS optimizations were done on the basis of maximum drug loading by equilibrium solubility studies and maximum solubilized drug upon aqueous dispersion by dynamic dispersion studies. In vitro lipolysis was examined under simulated Fed and Fasted conditions. Intestinal permeability study of the optimal SNEDDS formulation was compared with the raw fenofibrate dispersion using non- everted “intestinal sac technique.”Results: Initial characterization and solubility studies showed that mixed glycerides of Kollisolv MCT/Imwitor 742 (group b) containing formulations generated highly efficient SNEDDS as they are stable and produced lower nanodroplets with higher drug loading (group b) as compared to mixed glycerides of Cremercoor MCT/Capmul MCM (group a). In vitro dispersion and digestion studies confirmed that SNEDDS of group b (polar mixed glycerides) can retain high amount of drug (99% drug in solution for more than 24 h time) in dispersion media and have high recovery after digestion. The results from the permeability assessment confirmed that fenofibrate had 4.3-fold increase with F3b SNEDDS compared with the control.Conclusion: SNEDDS formulations containing alternative excipients (Kollisolv MCT/Imwitor 742 blend) could be a potential oral pharmaceutical product in taking anti-hyperlipidaemic agent fenofibrate to the systemic circulation as solubilized form.

DEVELOPMENT AND IN VIVO EVALUATION LOVASTATIN BY SELF-NANOEMULSIFYING DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

In the present investigation, self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS), of Lovastatin is being formulated to increase the solubility and bioavailability. The optimized Lovastatin SNEDDS formulation (F8) has a composition of Acrysol EL 135 as oil phase, Lauro glycol 90 and Capmul MCM as surfactant and co-surfactant respectively. Formulation F8 was found to be best formulation based on evaluation parameters. No drug precipitation or phase separation was observed in the optimized formulation. The particle size of the optimized formulation was found to be 4.9 nm & Z-Average of 71.5 nm indicating all the particles were in the nanometer range. The zeta potential of the optimized SNEDDS formulation was found to be -13.7 mV which comply with the requirement of the zeta potential for stability. Furthermore, pharmacokinetic studies in rats indicated that compared to the pure drug, the optimized SMEDDS formulation significantly improved the oral bioavailability of Lovastatin. Therefore, from our results the study suggests that the Lovastatin loaded self-nanoemulsifying formulation has a great potential for clinical application.

Surface Modified Self-Nanoemulsifying Formulations (SNEFs) For Oral Delivery of Gentamicin: In Vivo Toxicological and Pre- Clinical Chemistry Evaluations

Objective: This study aims to investigate the in vivo toxicological profile and pre-clinical safety of surface modified self-nanoemulsifying formulations (SNEFs) for oral delivery of a broad spectrum, anti-bacterial agent, gentamicin. Keywords: Pre-clinical chemistry, gentamicin, self-nanoemulsifying formulations, toxicological, haematological, histopathological.

A novel self-nanoemulsifying formulation for sunitinib: Evaluation of anticancer efficacy

Breast cancer is the top cancer and a main cause of death among women. The incidence of this cancer is increasing in the world. Sunitinib maleate is an oral, small-molecule, multi-targeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor that inhibits tumor cell proliferation and angiogenesis, and has been administrated as an anticancer drug. Self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS) is an isotopic mixture of an oil, a surfactant and usually a co-surfactant, which can spontaneously form fine oil-in-water nanoemulsion in aqueous media. Here, a SNEDDS composed of 15% ethyl oleate (as an oil phase), 30% tween 80 (as a surfactant), and 55% PEG 600 (as a co-surfactant) was prepared and developed as a carrier for sunitinib. The average droplet size of sunitinib-loaded SNEDDS was 29.5±6.3nm with a stability of more than one month. Sunitinib release from SNEDDS was enhanced accompanied by a controlled dissolution of the drug. Cytotoxicity studies on 4T1 and MCF-7 cell lines indicated a toxicity enhancement in sunitinib by SNEDDS. To inspect the bioavailability of the drug-loaded SNEDDS after oral administration with a dose of 50mgkg−1, the maximum plasma concentration and the mean area under the plasma concentration-time curve were measured. It was found that these parameters were increased 1.45- and 1.24-times respectively, compared to a drug suspension.

Optimization of self-nanoemulsifying formulations for weakly basic lipophilic drugs: role of acidification and experimental design

Formulators face great challenges in adopting systematic approaches for designing self-nanoemulsifying formulations (SNEFs) for different drug categories. In this study, we aimed to build-up an advanced SNEF development framework for weakly basic lipophilic drugs, such as cinnarizine (CN). First, the influence of formulation acidification on CN solubility was investigated. Second, formulation self-emulsification in media with different pH was assessed. Experimentally designed phase diagrams were also utilized for advanced optimization of CN-SNEF. Finally, the optimized formulation was examined using cross polarizing light microscopy for the presence of liquid crystals. CN solubility was significantly enhanced upon external and internal acidification. Among the various fatty acids, oleic acid-based formulations showed superior self-emulsification in all the tested media. Surprisingly, formulation turbidity and droplet size significantly decreased upon equilibration with CN. The design was validated using oleic acid/Imwitor308/Cremophor El (25/25/50), which showed excellent self-nanoemulsification, 43-nm droplet size (for CN-equilibrated formulations), and 88 mg/g CN solubility. In contrast to CN-free formulations, CN-loaded SNEF presented lamellar liquid crystals upon 50% aqueous dilution. These findings confirmed that CN-SNEF efficiency was greatly enhanced upon drug incorporation. The adopted strategy offers fast and accurate development of SNEFs and could be extrapolated for other weakly basic lipophilic drugs.

Effect of Lipid Composition in Propofol Formulations: Decisive Component in Reducing the Free Propofol Content and Improving Pharmacodynamic Profiles.

Current endeavor was aimed towards studying significance of lipid composition on free propofol concentration in aqueous phase and associated pain on injection. Three different nanoformulations, namely long-chain triglyceride (LCT)/medium-chain glyceride (MCG)-based nanoemulsion (ProNano), MCG-based self-nanoemulsifying formulation (PSNE), and lipid-free nanoformulation (PNS) were accessed for the same. In vitro and in vivo performances of developed formulations were compared with Diprivan®. ProNano showed minimum free propofol concentration (0.13%) and hence lower pain on injection (rat paw-lick test, 6 ± 2s) compared to Diprivan®, PSNE, and PNS (0.21%, 0.23%, and 0.51% free propofol, respectively, and rat paw-lick test; 12 ± 3, 14 ± 2, and 22 ± 3s, respectively). These results conjecture the role of MCG in effective encapsulation of propofol. Anesthetic action assessed by measuring duration of loss of righting reflex (LORR), which was found similar in case of ProNano and PSNE (14 ± 3 and 15 ± 3min, respectively) compared to Diprivan® (13 ± 3min). In case of lipid-free formulation, PNS, extended anesthetic action (21 ± 2min) was observed which may be due to sustained release of propofol from nanosponges. Studies on effect of lipoproteins on propofol release highlighted significance of HDL (100% release with maximum concentration of about 1.2μg/ml of HDL) from all three formulations.

Development of pH-sensitive self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems for acid-labile lipophilic drugs

Oral administration is the most convenient way of all the drug delivery routes. Orally administered bioactive compounds must resist the harsh acidic fluids or enzyme digestion in stomach, to reach their absorbed destination in small intestine. This is the case for silibinin, a drug used to protect liver cells against toxins that has also been demonstrated in vitro to possess anti-cancer effects. However, as many other drugs, silibinin can degrade in the stomach due to the action of the gastric fluid. The use of pH-sensitive self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (pH-SNEDDS) could overcome the drawback due to degradation of the drug in the stomach while enhancing its solubility and dissolution rate.In this paper we have investigated pH-sensitive self-nanoemulsifying formulations containing silibinin as model drug. Pseudo-ternary phase diagrams have been constructed in order to identify the self-emulsification regions under different pH. Solubility of silibinin in selected formulations has been assessed and stability of the pure drug and of the silibinin loaded pH-SNEDDS formulations in simulated gastric fluid had been compared. Droplet size of the optimized pH-SNEDDS has been correlated to pH, volume of dilution medium and silibinin loading amount. TEM (transmission electron microscopy) studies have shown that emulsion droplets had spherical shape and narrow size distribution. In vitro drug release studies of the optimal pH-SNEDDS indicated substantial increase of the drug release and release rate in comparison to pure silibinin and to the commercial silibinin tablet. The results indicated that pH-SNEDDS have potential to improve the biopharmaceutics properties of acid-labile lipophilic drugs.

Formulation of gentamicin as surface modified self-nanoemulsifying formulations (SNEFs) improves its anti-pneumococcal activity

Abstract Surface modified self-nanoemulsifying formulations (SNEFs) loaded with gentamicin were formulated using suitable blends of soybean oil, a mixture of Kolliphor® P188 and Kolliphor® EL as surfactants, and Transcutol® HP as co-surfactant, and administered orally to white albino rats for evaluation of anti-pneumococcal activity against Streptococcus pneumoniae. Droplet size and zeta potential measurements showed that SNEFs had mean droplet sizes in the range of 80.7±0.5–210.2±0.0, and were stable with mean zeta potential in the range of –25.2±3.0 to –42.5±1.3 mV. Preliminary screening against S. pneumoniae in vitro revealed that gentamicin-loaded SNEFs had better bacterial inhibition than the standard drug, and at a low minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 2.5 mg/mL. Gentamicin delivered into cerebrospinal fluid of rats from orally administered SNEFs produced a prolonged and enhanced activity against S. pneumoniae at a dose of 7 mg/kg than the standard drug at the same dose. Hence, results from this study showed that the activity of gentamicin against S. pneumoniae was improved by formulation as surface modified SNEFs.

Formulation design and in vitro physicochemical characterization of surface modified self-nanoemulsifying formulations (SNEFs) of gentamicin

Self-nanoemulsifying formulations (SNEFs) structured with PEG 4000 as PEGylated SNEFs, were formulated after solubility studies using rational blends of soybean oil, a combination of Kolliphor® EL and Kolliphor® P188 as surfactants, and Transcutol® HP as co-surfactant, and evaluated for oral delivery of gentamicin. Incorporation of gentamicin and PEG 4000 reduced the initial area of nanoemulsion of the ternary phase diagrams produced by water titration method using oil, surfactant mixture and co-surfactant. Emulsion droplets were in the nanometer scale ranging from 80–210nm. FT-IR study revealed that gentamicin structure remained intact in all formulations, and SEM micrographs showed spherical globules. Zeta potentials of SNEFs were in the range of −25.4 to −42.5mV, and showed a stable system with minor flips in electrostatic charges. There was high in vitro diffusion-dependent permeation of gentamicin from the SNEFs. Results obtained in this work showed that oral delivery of gentamicin was improved by formulation as surface modified SNEFs.

An integrated Taguchi and response surface methodological approach for the optimization of an HPLC method to determine glimepiride in a supersaturatable self-nanoemulsifying formulation

We studied the application of Taguchi orthogonal array (TOA) design during the development of an isocratic stability indicating HPLC method for glimepiride as per TOA design; twenty-seven experiments were conducted by varying six chromatographic factors. Percentage of organic phase was the most significant (p<0.001) on retention time, while buffer pH had the most significant (p<0.001) effect on tailing factor and theoretical plates. TOA design has shortcoming, which identifies the only linear effect, while ignoring the quadratic and interaction effects. Hence, a response surface model for each response was created including the linear, quadratic and interaction terms. The developed models for each response found to be well predictive bearing an acceptable adjusted correlation coefficient (0.9152 for retention time, 0.8985 for tailing factor and 0.8679 for theoretical plates). The models were found to be significant (p<0.001) having a high F value for each response (15.76 for retention time, 13.12 for tailing factor and 9.99 for theoretical plates). The optimal chromatographic condition uses acetonitrile – potassium dihydrogen phosphate (pH 4.0; 30mM) (50:50, v/v) as the mobile phase. The temperature, flow rate and injection volume were selected as 35±2°C, 1.0mLmin−1 and 20μL respectively. The method was validated as per ICH guidelines and was found to be specific for analyzing glimepiride from a novel supersaturatable self-nanoemulsifying formulation.

Novel semisolid SNEDDS based on PEG-30-di-(polyhydroxystearate): Progesterone incorporation and in vitro digestion

The aim of this work is to study the digestibility of PEG-30-di-(polyhydroxystearate) (Cithrol® DPHS) and its semisolid novel self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS). Furthermore, the SNEDDS-mediated solubility enhancement of the poorly water-soluble drug Progesterone was evaluated in different media. Additionally, the impact of digestion on Progesterone solubilization was investigated in vitro by a pancreatin digestion assay. The Progesterone-loaded semisolid self-nanoemulsifying formulation (F2) was comprehensively characterized by photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). SNEDDS were able to enhance the equilibrium solubility of Progesterone at various media. Only a minor part of Cithrol® DPHS was digested by pancreatin (less than 6%). Furthermore, protection of Progesterone against digestion-mediated precipitation was observed. Therefore, DPHS containing SNEDDS are attractive candidates for the development of bio robust drug delivery systems for the oral delivery of poorly soluble drugs.

Design and optimization of self-nanoemulsifying formulations for lipophilic drugs

The purpose of the current study was to develop and optimize novel self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS) with a high proportion of essential oil as carriers for lipophilic drugs. Solubility and droplet size as a function of the composition were investigated, and a ternary phase diagram was constructed in order to identify the self-emulsification regions. The optimized SNEDDS formulation consisted of lemon essential oil (oil), Cremophor RH40 (surfactant) and Transcutol HP (co-surfactant) in the ratio 50:30:20 (v/v). Ibuprofen was chosen as the model drug. The droplet size, ζ-potential and stability of the drug-loaded optimized formulations were determined. The stability of SNEDDS was proved after triple freezing/thawing cycles and storage at 4 °C and 25 °C for 3 months. In vitro drug release studies of optimized SNEDDS revealed a significant increase of the drug release and release rate in comparison to the Ibuprofen suspension (80% versus approximately 40% in 2 h). The results indicated that these SNEDDS formulations could be used to improve the bioavailability of lipophilic drugs.

Application of Quality by Design for the Optimization of an HPLC Method to Determine Ezetimibe in a Supersaturable Self-Nanoemulsifying Formulation

This paper describes the optimization of an isocratic stability indicating HPLC method for Ezetimibe (EZM). A five factor, three-level Box-Behnken experimental design optimized the method. The responses were (1) retention time, (2) tailing factor, and (3) theoretical plates. The quadratic effect of percentage (v/v) acetonitrile was the most significant (p < 0.001) factor to affect retention time and tailing factor, while interactions between percentage (v/v) acetonitrile and buffer pH had the most significant (p < 0.05) effect upon theoretical plates. The developed models for each response found to be well predictive bearing an acceptable adjusted correlation coefficient (0.9752 for retention time, 0.8557 for tailing factor, and 0.8336 for theoretical plates). The models were found to be significant (p < 0.001) having a high F value for each response (89.63 for retention time, 14.34 for tailing factor, and 12.27 for theoretical plates). The global desirability found to be 0.93 for the optimum chromatographic condition that achieved at a temperature of 35 ± 2°C using acetonitrile–potassium dihydrogen phosphate (pH 3.5; 20 mM) (45:55, v/v). The flow rate and injection volume kept at 0.8 mL min−1 and 20 µL, respectively. The optimized chromatographic method subsequently applied to quantify EZM from a novel supersaturable self-nanoemulsifying formulation.