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Abstract
Dissolution of poorly water-soluble drug, Artemisinin (ART), was enhanced by encapsulating the drug particles inside pore channels of ordered mesoporous silica, SBA-15, via co-spray drying. The drug release profiles of ART were investigated by using flow-through cell (USP IV) and in vitro dissolution tester (USP II). The co-spray-dried ART/SBA-15 samples demonstrated significantly improved dissolution rates and supersaturation compared to the untreated ART. The low cytotoxicity effect of ART and SBA-15 on Caco-2 cells after 24 h incubation demonstrated the biocompatibility of ART/SBA-15. Finally, the storage stability of the samples was investigated for 6 months under five different storage conditions. Overall, the solid dispersions exhibited excellent physical stability; however, their chemical stability was affected by humidity regardless of storage temperatures. The formulation of solid dispersions of ART/SBA-15 is potentially safe and an effective approach to enhance the solubility of poorly water-soluble ART.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Ms. Rajaletchumy and laboratory officers for their technical assistance.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work. Financial support for this study was provided by project grant R-279-000-329592 from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the Science and Engineering Research Council of A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), Singapore. The work was carried out in the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, A*STAR, Singapore and supported by the National University of Singapore.