Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of adding l-leucine and using an ethanolic solvent on the physicochemical properties and aerodynamic behavior of nano spray-dried pyrazinamide (PZA)-l-leucine powders.
Materials and methods: A nano spray dryer was employed to prepare PZA-l-leucine powders. The physicochemical properties were evaluated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction. The Andersen cascade impactor was used to evaluate the in vitro aerosolization performance of the sprayed powders.
Results and discussion: The incorporation of l-leucine at 10% improved the percentage fine particle fraction (%FPF) in all ethanolic solvent formulations by up to nearly twofold (20.0–23.4%) compared to the normal spray-dried PZA of (8.8–13.0%). Changes in the particle density and morphology were also observed. The dense solid particles of PZA were completely converted to bulk hollow particles with a thin shell by increasing the l-leucine content up to 50%. Higher ethanol concentration resulted in larger dimensions of the hollow particle but did not directly affect the aerosolization performance. The co-spray dried PZA with 20% l-leucine in a 10% ethanol feed solvent gave the best aerosolization performance (FPF = 33.0%).
Conclusions: The co-spray dried PZA with a suitable l-leucine content using a nano spray drying technique could be applied to formulate the PZA DPI.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dr. Brian Hodgeson for editing the article.
Declaration of interest
The financial support was from PSU National Research University and NANOTEC-PSU Excellence Center on Drug Delivery System. The authors report no declarations of interest.