In vitro evaluation of proniosomes as a drug carrier for flurbiprofen.

The purpose of the present investigation is to formulate and evaluate proniosomal transdermal carrier systems for flurbiprofen. Proniosomes were prepared using various non-ionic surfactants, namely span 20 (Sp 20), span 40 (Sp 40), span 60 (Sp 60) and span 80 (Sp 80) without and with cholesterol at percentages ranging from 0% to 50%. The effect of surfactant type and cholesterol content on drug release was investigated. Drug release was tested by diffusion through cellophane membrane and rabbit skin. Drug release from the prepared systems was compared to that from flurbiprofen suspensions in distilled water and HPMC (hydroxypropylmethylcellulose) gels. In case of Sp 20 and Sp 80, the added amount of cholesterol affected the preparation type to be either proniosomal alcoholic solutions or liquid crystalline gel systems. On the other hand, both Sp 40 and Sp 60 produced gel systems in presence or absence of cholesterol. Microscopic observations showed that either proniosomal solutions or gel formulations immediately converted to niosomal dispersions upon hydration. Due to the skin permeation barrier, rabbit skin showed lower drug diffusion rates compared to cellophane membrane. The proniosomal composition controlled drug diffusion rates to be either faster or slower than the prepared flurbiprofen suspensions in HPMC gels or distilled water, respectively. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the possibility of using proniosomal formulations for transdermal drug delivery.

Quality by design: understanding the formulation variables of a cyclosporine A self-nanoemulsified drug delivery systems by Box-Behnken design and desirability function.

Quality by design (QBD) refers to the achievement of certain predictable quality with desired and predetermined specifications. A very useful component of the QBD is the understanding of factors and their interaction effects by a desired set of experiments. The present project deals with a case study to understand the effect of formulation variables of nanoemulsified particles of a model drug, cyclosporine A (CyA). A three-factor, three-level design of experiment (DOE) with response surface methodology (RSM) was run to evaluate the main and interaction effect of several independent formulation variables that included amounts of Emulphor El-620 (X(1)), Capmul MCM-C8 (X(2)) and 20% (w/w) CyA in sweet orange oil (X(3)). The dependent variables included nanodroplets size (Y(1)), nanoemulsions turbidity (Y(2)), amounts released after 5 and 10min (Y(3), Y(4)), emulsification rate (Y(5)) and lag time (Y(6)). A desirability function was used to minimize lag time and to maximize the other dependent variables. A mathematical relationship, Y(5)=9.09-0.37X(1)+0.37X(2)-0.45X(3)+0.732X(1)X(2)-0.62X(1)X(3)+0.3X(2)X(3)+0.02X(1)(2)-0.28X(2)(2)+0.471X(3)(2) (r(2)=0.92), was obtained to explain the effect of all factors and their colinearities on the emulsification rate. The optimized nanodroplets were predicted to yield Y(1), Y(2), Y(3), Y(4), Y(5) and Y(6) values of 42.1nm, 50.6NTU, 56.7, 107.2, 9.3%/min and 3.5min, respectively, when X(1), X(2), and X(3) values were 36.4, 70 and 10mg, respectively. A new batch was prepared with these levels of the independent variables to yield Y(1)-Y(6) values that were remarkably close to the predicted values. In conclusion, this investigation demonstrated the potential of QBD in understanding the effect of the formulation variables on the quality of CyA self-nanoemulsified formulations.