MONTELUKAST SPRAY DRIED MICROPARTICLES: PREPARATION, EXCIPIENTS SELECTION AND IN VITRO PULMONARY DEPOSITION

Objective: This study focused on the preparation of montelukast sodium (MTK) fast release pulmonary targeted microparticles using the spray drying technique.Methods: The effect of addition of different excipients namely: mannitol, leucine and ovalbumin on the physico-chemical characteristics of MTK spray dried powders were investigated. Powder flow properties, drug association efficiency as well as microparticle size and mass median aerodynamic diameter were determined. The prepared microparticles were characterized using FT-IR and TGA. The powder crystallographic and thermal properties were studied using DSC and X-ray powder diffraction. A twin stage impinger was used to evaluate in vitro pulmonary deposition from which the inhalation indices were derived.Results: The tested excipients showed no adverse chemical interactions with the drug based on FT-IR. The best inhalation indices were obtained with powders spray dried with leucine followed by leucine/mannitol mixtures with MMAD of 1.73±0.08 and 1.36±0.16 and fine particle fraction of 60.55±1.63 and 52.31±3.52, respectively. The dried powders showed good physico-chemical stability for up to 6 mo storage.Conclusion: The developed MTK spray dried particles may offer a good platform for the targeted pulmonary delivery of MTK overcoming the major biological barriers