Structure and Mobility of Lactose in Lactose/Sodium Montmorillonite Nanocomposites

This study aims at investigating the molecular level organization and molecular mobility in montmorillonite nanocomposites with the uncharged organic low-molecular-weight compound lactose commonly used in pharmaceutical drug delivery, food technology, and flavoring. Nanocomposites were prepared under slow and fast drying conditions, attained by drying at ambient conditions and by spray-drying, respectively. A detailed structural investigation was performed with modulated differential scanning calorimetry, powder X-ray diffraction, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, scanning electron microscopy, microcalorimetry, and molecular dynamic simulations. The lactose was intercalated in the sodium montmorillonite interlayer space regardless of the clay content, drying rate, or humidity exposure. Although, the spray-drying resulted in higher proportion of intercalated lactose compared with the drying under ambient conditions, non-intercalated lactose was present at 20 wt% lactose content. This indicates limitations in maximum load capacity of nonionic organic substances into the montmorillonite interlayer space. Furthermore, a fraction of the intercalated lactose in the co-spray-dried nanocomposites diffused out from the clay interlayer space upon humidity exposure. Also, the lactose in the nanocomposites demonstrated higher molecular mobility than that of neat amorphous lactose. This study provides a foundation for understanding functional properties of nanocomposites, such as loading capacity and physical stability

Phase Transformations in Solid Pharmaceutical Materials Studied by AFM, ESCA, DSC and SAXS

Mixing excipients is a common way to produce pharmaceutical materials with suitable properties for drug formulation. An understanding of the basic mechanisms involved in the formation and transformation of the structures of solid state mixtures is crucial if one is to be able to produce materials with the desired properties in a reliable way. In the first part of the thesis, the atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique was used to visualise the re-crystallisation of spray-dried amorphous particles comprised of lactose and PVP. The transformation was quantified on a single particle level and analysed with a common kinetic model, the JMAK-equation. The way in which the PVP was incorporated into the particles and the impact this had on their physical stability on exposure to increasing levels of humidity was investigated. The amount and, to a certain extent, the molecular weight of the PVP affected the moisture induced crystallisation of the particles. The inhibition was further discussed in terms of nucleation and growth. In the second part of the thesis, the formation of phases in solid dispersions of monoolein (MO) in PEGs was studied by the use of SAXS and DSC. Upon solidification of a melt, the components phase separated, resulting in a PEG-rich phase and an MO phase. MO was intercalated into the amorphous domains of the lamellar structure of PEG. A second MO phase appeared in the mixtures where the average molecular weight of PEG was 1500 and 4000 g/mol. It was hypothesised that this second phase was formed in conjunction with the expulsion of MO as the PEG unfolded. This thesis describes the application of two relatively unexplored solid state techniques on two different solid mixtures of pharmaceutical interest and, in so doing, contributes to the knowledge of phase formation and transformations in the solid state

The Need for Restructuring the Disordered Science of Amorphous Drug Formulations

The alarming numbers of poorly soluble discovery compounds have centered the efforts towards finding strategies to improve the solubility. One of the attractive approaches to enhance solubility is via amorphization despite the stability issue associated with it. Although the number of amorphous-based research reports has increased tremendously after year 2000, little is known on the current research practice in designing amorphous formulation and how it has changed after the concept of solid dispersion was first introduced decades ago. In this review we try to answer the following questions: What model compounds and excipients have been used in amorphous-based research? How were these two components selected and prepared? What methods have been used to assess the performance of amorphous formulation? What methodology have evolved and/or been standardized since amorphous-based formulation was first introduced and to what extent have we embraced on new methods? Is the extent of research mirrored in the number of marketed amorphous drug products? We have summarized the history and evolution of amorphous formulation and discuss the current status of amorphous formulation-related research practice. We also explore the potential uses of old experimental methods and how they can be used in tandem with computational tools in designing amorphous formulation more efficiently than the traditional trial-and-error approach

Early drug development predictions of glass-forming ability and physical stability of drugs

The purpose of this study was to investigate if rapidly measured physical properties can predict glass-forming ability and glass stability of drug compounds. A series of 50 structurally diverse drug molecules were studied with respect to glass-forming ability and, for glass-formers (n = 24), the physical stability upon 1 month of storage was determined. Spray-drying and melt-cooling were used to produce the amorphous material and the solid state was analysed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Powder X-ray Diffraction. Thermal properties and molecular weight (Mw) were used to develop predictive models of (i) glass-forming ability and (ii) physical stability. In total, the glass-forming ability was correctly predicted for 90% of the drugs from their Mw alone. As a rule of thumb, drugs with Mw greater than 300 g/mole are expected to be transformed to its amorphous state by using standard process technology. Glass transition temperature and Mw predicted the physical stability upon storage correctly for 78% of the glass-forming compounds. A strong sigmoidal relationship (R-2 of 0.96) was identified between crystallization temperature and stability. These findings have the potential to rationalize decisions schemes for utilizing and developing amorphous formulations, through early predictions of glass-forming ability from Mw and physical stability from simple DSC characterization

Mechanism-based selection of stabilization strategy for amorphous formulations : Insights into crystallization pathways

We developed a step-by-step experimental protocol using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic vapour sorption (DVS), polarized light microscopy (PLM) and a small-scale dissolution apparatus (mu DISS Profiler) to investigate the mechanism (solid-to-solid or solution-mediated) by which crystallization of amorphous drugs occurs upon dissolution. This protocol then guided how to stabilize the amorphous formulation. Indapamide, metolazone, glibenclamide and glipizide were selected as model drugs and HPMC (Pharmacoat 606) and PVP (K30) as stabilizing polymers. Spray-dried amorphous indapamide, metolazone and glibenclamide crystallized via solution-mediated nucleation while glipizide suffered from solid-to-solid crystallization. The addition of 0.001%-0.01% (w/v) HPMC into the dissolution medium successfully prevented the crystallization of supersaturated solutions of indapamide and metolazone whereas it only reduced the crystallization rate for glibenclamide. Amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) formulation of glipizide and PVP K30, at a ratio of 50:50% (w/w) reduced but did not completely eliminate the solid-to-solid crystallization of glipizide even though the overall dissolution rate was enhanced both in the absence and presence of HPMC. Raman spectroscopy indicated the formation of a glipizide polymorph in the dissolution medium with higher solubility than the stable polymorph. As a complementary technique, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of indapamide and glibenclamide with HPMC was performed. It was revealed that hydrogen bonding patterns of the two drugs with HPMC differed significantly, suggesting that hydrogen bonding may play a role in the greater stabilizing effect on supersaturation of indapamide, compared to glibenclamide

Physical stability of drugs after storage above and below the glass transition temperature: Relationship to glass-forming ability

A B S T R A C T Amorphous materials are inherently unstable and tend to crystallize upon storage. In this study, we investigated the extent to which the physical stability and inherent crystallization tendency of drugs are related to their glass-forming ability (GFA), the glass transition temperature (T g ) and thermodynamic factors. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to produce the amorphous state of 52 drugs [18 compounds crystallized upon heating (Class II) and 34 remained in the amorphous state (Class III)] and to perform in situ storage for the amorphous material for 12 h at temperatures 20 C above or below the T g . A computational model based on the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was developed to predict the structure-property relationships. All drugs maintained their Class when stored at 20 C below the T g . Fourteen of the Class II compounds crystallized when stored above the T g whereas all except one of the Class III compounds remained amorphous. These results were only related to the glass-forming ability and no relationship to e.g. thermodynamic factors was found. The experimental data were used for computational modeling and a classification model was developed that correctly predicted the physical stability above the T g . The use of a large dataset revealed that molecular features related to aromaticity and p-p interactions reduce the inherent physical stability of amorphous drugs

Physical stability of drugs after storage above and below the glass transition temperature : Relationship to glass-forming ability

Amorphous materials are inherently unstable and tend to crystallize upon storage. In this study, we investigated the extent to which the physical stability and inherent crystallization tendency of drugs are related to their glass-forming ability (GFA), the glass transition temperature (T-g) and thermodynamic factors. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to produce the amorphous state of 52 drugs [ 18 compounds crystallized upon heating (Class II) and 34 remained in the amorphous state (Class III)] and to perform in situ storage for the amorphous material for 12 h at temperatures 20 degrees C above or below the T-g. A computational model based on the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was developed to predict the structure-property relationships. All drugs maintained their Class when stored at 20 degrees C below the T-g. Fourteen of the Class II compounds crystallized when stored above the T-g whereas all except one of the Class III compounds remained amorphous. These results were only related to the glass-forming ability and no relationship to e. g. thermodynamic factors was found. The experimental data were used for computational modeling and a classification model was developed that correctly predicted the physical stability above the T-g. The use of a large dataset revealed that molecular features related to aromaticity and pi-pi interactions reduce the inherent physical stability of amorphous drugs

Physical stability of drugs after storage above and below the glass transition temperature : Relationship to glass-forming ability

Amorphous materials are inherently unstable and tend to crystallize upon storage. In this study, we investigated the extent to which the physical stability and inherent crystallization tendency of drugs are related to their glass-forming ability (GFA), the glass transition temperature (T-g) and thermodynamic factors. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to produce the amorphous state of 52 drugs [ 18 compounds crystallized upon heating (Class II) and 34 remained in the amorphous state (Class III)] and to perform in situ storage for the amorphous material for 12 h at temperatures 20 degrees C above or below the T-g. A computational model based on the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was developed to predict the structure-property relationships. All drugs maintained their Class when stored at 20 degrees C below the T-g. Fourteen of the Class II compounds crystallized when stored above the T-g whereas all except one of the Class III compounds remained amorphous. These results were only related to the glass-forming ability and no relationship to e. g. thermodynamic factors was found. The experimental data were used for computational modeling and a classification model was developed that correctly predicted the physical stability above the T-g. The use of a large dataset revealed that molecular features related to aromaticity and pi-pi interactions reduce the inherent physical stability of amorphous drugs