Nanoemulsifying drug delivery system to improve the bioavailability of piroxicam

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to develop and characterize self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS) of piroxicam in liquid and solid forms to improve its dissolution, absorption and therapeutic efficacy.

Materials and methods: The generation of liquid SNEDDS (L-SNEDDS) was composed of soybean or coconut oil/Tween 80/Transcutol HP (12/80/8%w/w) and it was selected as the optimized formulation based on the solubility study and pseudo-ternary phase diagram. Optimized L-SNEDDS and liquid supersaturatable SNEDDS (L-sSNEDDS) preparations were then adsorbed onto adsorbents and formulated as directly compressed tablets.

Results and discussion: The improved drug dissolution rate in the solid supersaturatable preparation (S-sSNEDDS) may be due to the formation of a nanoemulsion and the presence of drug in an amorphous state with hydrogen bond interaction between the drug and SNEDDS components. In vivo pharmacokinetic studies on eight healthy human volunteers showed a significant improvement in the oral bioavailability of piroxicam from S-sSNEDDS (F12) compared with both the pure drug (PP) and its commercial product (Feldene^®) (commercial dosage form (CD)). The relative bioavailability of S-sSNEDDS (F12) relative to PP or CD was about 151.01 and 98.96%, respectively.

Conclusion: The obtained results ratify that S-sSNEDDS is a promising drug delivery system to enhance the oral bioavailability of piroxicam.

Keywords:

• Oral
• piroxicam
• self-nanoemulsifying system
• particle size
• surfactants

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the following pharmaceutical companies for providing us with the gift samples that helped us in our research: Piroxicam sample from Medical Union Pharmaceuticals (MUP) Co., Egypt, Transcutol HP and Labrasol samples from Gattefoseé Co. (Saint-Priest Cedex, France) and Cremophor^® RH40 and Cremophor^® EL samples from BASF Corp. (Ludwigshafen, Germany).

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.