Tuning mechanical properties of pharmaceutical crystals with multicomponent crystals: voriconazole as a case study.

Crystals of voriconazole, an antifungal drug, are soft in nature, and this is disadvantageous during compaction studies where pressure is applied on the solid. Crystal engineering is used to make cocrystals and salts with modified mechanical properties (e.g., hardness). Cocrystals with biologically safe coformers such as fumaric acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and 4-aminobenzoic acid and salts with hydrochloric acid and oxalic acid are prepared through solvent assisted grinding. The presence (salt) or absence (cocrystal) of proton transfer in these multicomponent crystals is unambiguously confirmed with single crystal X-ray diffraction. All the cocrystals have 1:1 stoichiometry, whereas salts exhibit variable stoichiometries such as HCl salt (1:2) and oxalate salts (1:1.5 and 1:1). The nanoindentation technique was applied on single crystals of the salts and cocrystals. The salts exhibit better hardness than the drug and cocrystals in the order salts ≫ drug > cocrystals. The molecular origin of this mechanical modulation is explained on the basis of slip planes in the crystal structure and relative orientations of the molecules with respect to the nanoindentation direction. The hydrochloride salt is the hardest solid in this family. This may be useful for tableting of the drug during formulation and in drug development.

Cocrystals of Hydrochlorothiazide: Solubility and Diffusion/Permeability Enhancements through Drug-Coformer Interactions.

Hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) is a diuretic and a BCS class IV drug with low solubility and low permeability, exhibiting poor oral absorption. The present study attempts to improve the physicochemical properties of the drug using a crystal engineering approach with cocrystals. Such multicomponent crystals of HCT with nicotinic acid (NIC), nicotinamide (NCT), 4-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), succinamide (SAM), and resorcinol (RES) were prepared using liquid-assisted grinding, and their solubilities in pH 7.4 buffer were evaluated. Diffusion and membrane permeability were studied using a Franz diffusion cell. Except for the SAM and NIC cocrystals, all other binary systems exhibited improved solubility. All of the cocrystals showed improved diffusion/membrane permeability compared to that of HCT with the exception of the SAM cocrystal. When the solubility was high, as in the case of PABA, NCT, and RES cocrystals, the flux/permeability dropped slightly. This is in agreement with the expected interplay between solubility and permeability. Improved solubility/permeability is attributed to new drug-coformer interactions. Cocrystals of SAM, however, showed poor solubility and flux. This cocrystal contains a primary sulfonamide dimer synthon similar to that of HCT polymorphs, which may be a reason for its unusual behavior. Hirshfeld surface analysis was carried out in all cases to determine whether a correlation exists between cocrystal permeability and drug-coformer interactions.

Correction to "Mechanosynthesis of Stable Salt Hydrates of Allopurinol with Enhanced Dissolution, Diffusion, and Pharmacokinetics".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c05263.].

Salt and cocrystals of sildenafil with dicarboxylic acids: solubility and pharmacokinetic advantage of the glutarate salt.

Sildenafil is a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Because of poor aqueous solubility of the drug, the citrate salt, with improved solubility and pharmacokinetics, has been marketed. However, the citrate salt requires an hour to reach its peak plasma concentration. Thus, to improve solubility and bioavailability characteristics, cocrystals and salts of the drug have been prepared by treating aliphatic dicarboxylic acids with sildenafil; the N-methylated piperazine of the drug molecule interacts with the carboxyl group of the acid to form a heterosynthon. Salts are formed with oxalic and fumaric acid; salt monoanions are formed with succinic and glutaric acid. Sildenafil forms cocrystals with longer chain dicarboxylic acids such as adipic, pimelic, suberic, and sebacic acids. Auxiliary stabilization via C-H···O interactions is also present in these cocrystals and salts. Solubility experiments of sildenafil cocrystal/salts were carried out in 0.1N HCl aqueous medium and compared with the solubility of the citrate salt. The glutarate salt and pimelic acid cocrystal dissolve faster than the citrate salt in a two hour dissolution experiment. The glutarate salt exhibits improved solubility (3.2-fold) compared to the citrate salt in water. Solubilities of the binary salts follow an inverse correlation with their melting points, while the solubilities of the cocrystals follow solubilities of the coformer. Pharmacokinetic studies on rats showed that the glutarate salt exhibits doubled plasma AUC values in a single dose within an hour compared to the citrate salt. The high solubility of glutaric acid, in part originating from the strained conformation of the molecule and its high permeability, may be the reason for higher plasma levels of the drug.

Mechanosynthesis of Stable Salt Hydrates of Allopurinol with Enhanced Dissolution, Diffusion, and Pharmacokinetics.

Allopurinol (ALO) is a medication that treats gout and kidney stones by lowering uric acid synthesis in the blood. The biopharmaceutics classification system (BCS) IV drug exhibits poor aqueous solubility, permeability, and bioavailability. To overcome the bottlenecks of ALO, salts with maleic acid (MLE) and oxalic acid (OXA) were synthesized using the solvent-assisted grinding method. The novel multicomponent solids were characterized by PXRD, DSC, TGA, FT-IR, and SEM images. The crystal structures of these salts with variable stoichiometry were obtained using Rietveld refinement from the high-resolution PXRD data. The proton from the dicarboxylic acid is transferred to the most basic pyrimidine "N" of ALO. The N-H···N hydrogen-bonded ALO homodimer is replaced by the N+-H···O- ionic interactions in ALO-OXA (2:1:0.4) and ALO-MLE (1:1:1) salt hydrates. The organic salts improved solubility and dissolution up to 5-fold and the diffusion permeability up to 12 times compared to the native drug in a luminal pH 6.8 phosphate buffer medium. The salt hydrates were exceptionally stable during storage at 30 ± 5 °C and 75 ± 5% relative humidity. Superior dissolution and diffusion permeability of the ALO-MLE salt resulted in improved pharmacokinetics (peak plasma concentration) that offers a promising solid dosage form with enhanced bioavailability and lower dosage formulation.

Design of Ascorbic Acid Eutectic Mixtures With Sugars to Inhibit Oxidative Degradation.

L-Ascorbic acid (ASC), commonly known as vitamin C, acts as an anti-oxidant in the biological system. It is extensively used as an excipient in pharmaceutical industry, food supplements in fruit juices, and food materials due to its free radicals scavenging activity. Main drawback of ASC is its poor aqueous stability owing to the presence of lactone moiety that is easily oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid and further degraded. To improve aqueous stability and inhibit oxidative degradation, ASC was co-crystallized to constitute binary eutectic compositions with mono and di-saccharides such as glucose, sucrose, lactose, and mannitol. The eutectics were confirmed by their (single) lower melting endotherm compared to ASC and sugars, although Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and Fourier transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) data confirmed the characteristics of their physical mixture. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the binary eutectics confirmed their irregular morphology. The ASC eutectics exhibited improved shelf-life by 2-5-fold in weakly acidic (pH 5) and neutral (pH 7) aqueous buffer medium, whereas the eutectic with glucose enhanced shelf-life only by 1.1-1.2-fold in acidic medium (pH 3.3 and 4). Notably, stabilizing effect of the sugar eutectics decreased with increasing acidity of the medium. In addition, higher binding energy of the disaccharide eutectics partially supports the aqueous stability order of ASC in the neutral pH medium due to more number of non-bonded interactions than that of monosaccharides.

Isostructural cocrystals of metaxalone with improved dissolution characteristics.

Muscle relaxant and pain reliever metaxalone (MET) is a biopharmaceutical classification systems (BCS) class II drug with poor aqueous solubility and high permeability. The presence of an aromatic skeleton and cyclic carboxamate moiety are the probable reasons for the decreased aqueous solubility, which impacts on its low bioavailability. A high dose (800 mg) of the drug often creates adverse side effects on the central nervous system that needs urgent remedy. Cocrystallization of MET with nicotinamide (NAM), salicylamide (SAM), and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA) resulted in multicomponent solids that were characterized by PXRD, DSC and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Cocrystals with SAM and NAM form 2D isostructural cocrystals, whereas with HBA the result is a differently packed cocrystal hydrate (or anisole hemisolvate) depending upon the crystallization medium. Similar to the reported MET cocrystals, these cocrystals also confirm the preference for an imide⋯imide homosynthon in the drug. The dominance of the drug-drug homodimer over drug-coformer heterodimers was demonstrated based on binding energy calculations. Further, powder dissolution experiments in pH 6.8 phosphate buffer indicate that the cocrystals improved the apparent solubility compared to the native drug by 3-9 fold. The absence of stronger heterosynthons between MET and the coformers, their lower melting points and the high solubility of the coformers are the probable reasons for the enhanced solubility of the bioactive component. The MET-NAM cocrystal exhibited the highest solubility/dissolution rate among the three binary solid forms, which may offer improved bioavailability and a lower dose with minimal side effects.

Multicomponent solid forms of the uric acid reabsorption inhibitor lesinurad and cocrystal polymorphs with urea: DFT simulation and solubility study.

Lesinurad (systematic name: 2-{[5-bromo-4-(4-cyclopropylnaphthalen-1-yl)-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl]sulfanyl}acetic acid, C17H14BrN3O2S) is a selective uric acid reabsorption inhibitor related to gout, which exhibits poor aqueous solubility. High-throughput solid-form screening was performed to screen for new solid forms with improved pharmaceutically relevant properties. During polymorph screening, we obtained two solvates with methanol (CH3OH) and ethanol (C2H5OH). Binary systems with caffeine (systematic name: 3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione, C8H10N4O2) and nicotinamide (C6H6N2O), polymorphs with urea (CH4N2O) and eutectics with similar drugs, like allopurinol and febuxostat, were prepared using the crystal engineering approach. All these novel solid forms were confirmed by XRD, DSC and FT-IR. The crystal structures were solved by single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction. The crystal structures indicate that the lesinurad molecule is highly flexible and the triazole moiety, along with the rotatable thioacetic acid (side chain) and cyclopropane ring, is almost perpendicular to the planar naphthalene moiety. The carboxylic acid-triazole heterosynthon in the drug is interrupted by the presence of methanol and ethanol molecules in their crystal structures and forms intermolecular macrocyclic rings. The caffeine cocrystal maintains the consistency of the acid-triazole heterosynthons as in the drug and, in addition, they are bound by several auxiliary interactions. In the binary system of nicotinamide and urea, the acid-triazole heterosynthon is replaced by an acid-amide synthon. Among the urea cocrystal polymorphs, Form I (P-1, 1:1) consists of an acid-amide (urea) heterodimer, whereas in Form II (P21/c, 2:2), both acid-amide heterosynthons and urea-urea dimers co-exist. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further support the experimentally observed synthon hierarchies in the cocrystals. Aqueous solubility experiments of lesinurad and its binary solids in pH 5 acetate buffer medium indicate the apparent solubility order lesinurad-urea Form I (43-fold) > lesinurad-caffeine (20-fold) > lesinurad-allopurinol (12-fold) ≃ lesinurad-nicotinamide (11-fold) > lesinurad, and this order is correlated with the crystal structures.

New multi-component solid forms of anti-cancer drug Erlotinib: role of auxiliary interactions in determining a preferred conformation.

Erlotinib is a BCS (biopharmaceutical classification system) class II drug used for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. There is an urgent need to obtain new solid forms of higher solubility to improve the bioavailability of the API (active pharmaceutical ingredient). In this context, cocrystals with urea, succinic acid, and glutaric acid and salts with maleic acid, adipic acid, and saccharin were prepared via wet granulation and solution crystallizations. Crystal structures of the free base (Z' = 2), cocrystals of erlotinib-urea (1:1), erlotinib-succinic acid monohydrate (1:1:1), erlotinib-glutaric acid monohydrate (1:1:1) and salts of erlotinib-adipic acid adipate (1:0.5:0.5) are determined and their hydrogen-bonding patterns are analyzed. Self recognition via the (amine) N-H...N (pyridine) hydrogen bond between the API molecules is replaced by several heterosynthons such as acid-pyridine, amide-pyridine and carboxylate-pyridinium in the new binary systems. Auxiliary interactions play an important role in determining the conformation of the API in the crystal. FT-IR spectroscopy is used to distinguish between the salts and cocrystals in the new multi-component systems. The new solid forms are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to confirm their unique phase identity.

Tuning solubility and stability of hydrochlorothiazide co-crystals.

Hydrochlorothiazide (HCT), C7H8ClN3O4S2, is a diuretic BCS (Biopharmaceutics Classification System) class IV drug which has primary and secondary sulfonamide groups. To modify the aqueous solubility of the drug, co-crystals with biologically safe co-formers were screened. Multi-component molecular crystals of HCT were prepared with nicotinic acid, nicotinamide, succinamide, p-aminobenzoic acid, resorcinol and pyrogallol using liquid-assisted grinding. The co-crystals were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and differential scanning calorimetry. Single crystal structures were obtained for four of them. The N-H...O sulfonamide catemer synthons found in the stable polymorph of pure HCT are replaced in the co-crystals by drug-co-former heterosynthons. Isostructural co-crystals with nicotinic acid and nicotinamide are devoid of the common sulfonamide dimer/catemer synthons. Solubility and stability experiments were carried out for the co-crystals in water (neutral pH) under ambient conditions. Among the six binary systems, the co-crystal with p-aminobenzoic acid showed a sixfold increase in solubility compared with pure HCT, and stability up to 24 h in an aqueous medium. The co-crystals with nicotinamide, resorcinol and pyrogallol showed only a 1.5-2-fold increase in solubility and transformed to HCT within 1 h of the dissolution experiment. An inverse correlation is observed between the melting points of the co-crystals and their solubilities.

Acemetacin cocrystals and salts: structure solution from powder X-ray data and form selection of the piperazine salt.

Acemetacin (ACM) is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), which causes reduced gastric damage compared with indomethacin. However, acemetacin has a tendency to form a less soluble hydrate in the aqueous medium. We noted difficulties in the preparation of cocrystals and salts of acemetacin by mechanochemical methods, because this drug tends to form a hydrate during any kind of solution-based processing. With the objective to discover a solid form of acemetacin that is stable in the aqueous medium, binary adducts were prepared by the melt method to avoid hydration. The coformers/salt formers reported are pyridine carboxamides [nicotinamide (NAM), isonicotinamide (INA), and picolinamide (PAM)], caprolactam (CPR), p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), and piperazine (PPZ). The structures of an ACM-INA cocrystal and a binary adduct ACM-PABA were solved using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Other ACM cocrystals, ACM-PAM and ACM-CPR, and the piperazine salt ACM-PPZ were solved from high-resolution powder X-ray diffraction data. The ACM-INA cocrystal is sustained by the acid⋯pyridine heterosynthon and N-H⋯O catemer hydrogen bonds involving the amide group. The acid⋯amide heterosynthon is present in the ACM-PAM cocrystal, while ACM-CPR contains carboxamide dimers of caprolactam along with acid-carbonyl (ACM) hydrogen bonds. The cocrystals ACM-INA, ACM-PAM and ACM-CPR are three-dimensional isostructural. The carboxyl⋯carboxyl synthon in ACM-PABA posed difficulty in assigning the position of the H atom, which may indicate proton disorder. In terms of stability, the salts were found to be relatively stable in pH 7 buffer medium over 24 h, but the cocrystals dissociated to give ACM hydrate during the same time period. The ACM-PPZ salt and ACM-nicotinamide cocrystal dissolve five times faster than the stable hydrate form, whereas the ACM-PABA adduct has 2.5 times faster dissolution rate. The pharmaceutically acceptable piperazine salt of acemetacin exhibits superior stability, faster dissolution rate and is able to overcome the hydration tendency of the reference drug.

Crystal engineering of stable temozolomide cocrystals.

The antitumor prodrug temozolomide (TMZ) decomposes in aqueous medium of pH≥7 but is relatively stable under acidic conditions. Pure TMZ is obtained as a white powder but turns pink and then brown, which is indicative of chemical degradation. Pharmaceutical cocrystals of TMZ were engineered with safe coformers such as oxalic acid, succinic acid, salicylic acid, d,l-malic acid, and d,l-tartaric acid, to stabilize the drug as a cocrystal. All cocrystals were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), single crystal X-ray diffraction, and FT-IR as well as FT-Raman spectroscopy. Temozolomide cocrystals with organic acids (pK(a) 2-6) were found to be more stable than the reference drug under physiological conditions. The half-life (T(1/2)) of TMZ-oxalic and TMZ-salicylic acid measured by UV/Vis spectroscopy in pH 7 buffer is two times longer than that of TMZ (3.5 h and 3.6 h vs. 1.7 h); TMZ-succinic acid, TMZ-tartaric acid, and TMZ-malic acid also exhibited a longer half-life (2.3, 2.5, and 2.8 h, respectively). Stability studies at 40 °C and 75 % relative humidity (ICH conditions) showed that hydrolytic degradation of temozolomide in the solid state started after one week, as determined by PXRD, whereas its cocrystals with succinic acid and oxalic acid were intact at 28 weeks, thus confirming the greater stability of cocrystals compared to the reference drug. The intrinsic dissolution rate (IDR) profile of TMZ-oxalic acid and TMZ-succinic acid cocrystals in buffer of pH 7 is comparable to that of temozolomide. Among the temozolomide cocrystals examined, those with succinic acid and oxalic acid exhibited both an improved stability and a comparable dissolution rate to the reference drug.

Fast dissolving eutectic compositions of curcumin.

The bioactive herbal ingredient curcumin was screened with pharmaceutically acceptable coformers to discover solid-state forms of high solubility. Mechano-chemical grinding of curcumin with cocrystal formers in a fixed stoichiometry ratio resulted in binary eutectic compositions of curcumin-coformer with nicotinamide (1:2), ferulic acid (1:1), hydroquinone (1:1), p-hydroxybenzoic acid (1:1), and l-tartaric acid (1:1). The eutectic nature of the product crystalline solids was established by differential scanning calorimetry, and the absence of hydrogen-bonded crystalline phases such as cocrystals/salts was ascertained by powder X-ray diffraction, IR-Raman, and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The best case of CUR-NAM eutectic exhibits 10-fold faster IDR and 6-times higher AUC compared to crystalline curcumin.

Phase transformation in conformational polymorphs of nimesulide.

Nimesulide is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) and a COX-2 inhibitor. The native crystal structure of nimesulide (or Form I) has been characterized in the literature by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) lines, whereas full three-dimensional coordinates are known for a second polymorph (Form II). A detailed structural characterization and phase stability of nimesulide polymorphs were carried out. Rod-like crystals of Form I (space group Pca2(1); number of symmetry-independent molecules, Z' = 2) were crystallized from EtOH concomitantly with Form II (C2/c, Z' = 1). These conformational polymorphs have different torsion angles at the phenoxy and sulfonamide groups. The crystal structures are stabilized by N-H · · · O hydrogen bonds and C-H · · · O, C-H · · · π interactions. Phase transition from the metastable Form (II) to the stable modification (I) was studied using differential scanning calorimetry, hot-stage microscopy, solid-state grinding, solvent-drop grinding, and slurry crystallization. The phase transition was monitored by infrared, Raman, and ss-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; and XRPD and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The stable polymorph I was obtained in excess during solution crystallization, grinding, and slurry methods. Intrinsic dissolution and equilibrium solubility experiments showed that the metastable Form II dissolves much faster than the stable Form I.

New polymorphs of curcumin.

Two new crystalline polymorphs and an amorphous phase of the active curcuminoid ingredient in turmeric are reported. Curcumin polymorph 2 has higher dissolution rate and better solubility than the known polymorph 1.