3D printed matrix solid forms: Can the drug solubility and dose customisation affect their controlled release behaviour?

Juliana Dos Santos; Gabriela de Souza Balbinot; Silvio Buchner; Fabrício Mezzomo Collares; Maike Windbergs; Monique Deon; Ruy Carlos Ruver Beck

doi:10.1016/j.ijpx.2022.100153

3D printed matrix solid forms: Can the drug solubility and dose customisation affect their controlled release behaviour?

Int J Pharm X. 2022 Dec 23:5:100153. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpx.2022.100153. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Juliana Dos Santos^{1

2}, Gabriela de Souza Balbinot³, Silvio Buchner⁴, Fabrício Mezzomo Collares³, Maike Windbergs⁵, Monique Deon^{6

2}, Ruy Carlos Ruver Beck^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas, Faculdade de Farmácia Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Avenida Ipiranga, 2752, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul 90610-000, Brazil.
² Laboratório de Nanocarreadores e Impressão 3D em Tecnologia Farmacêutica (Nano3D), Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.
³ Laboratório de Materiais Dentários, Faculdade de Odontologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Rua Ramiro Barcelos, 2492/4th floor, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
⁴ Laboratório de Altas Pressões e Materiais Avançados (LAPMA), Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
⁵ Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology and Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue Straße 9, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
⁶ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biociências, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.

Abstract

The use of 3D printing in pharmaceutics has grown over the last years, along with the number of studies on the impact of the composition of these formulations on their pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical properties. Recently, we reported the combined effect of the infill percentage and the presence of a pore former on the drug release behaviour of 3D printed matrix solid forms prepared by fused deposition modelling. However, there are some open questions about the effect of the drug solubility and the size of these dosage forms on their controlled release properties. Therefore, we produced poly(Ɛ-caprolactone) filaments containing different soluble forms of dexamethasone (free acid, DEX; acetate ester, DEX-A; and phosphate salt, DEX-P), which showed suitable mechanical properties and printability. 3D printed solid forms were produced in two different sizes. The formulations composed of DEX-P released about 50% of drug after 10 h, while those containing DEX or DEX-A released about 9%. The drug release profiles from the 3D printed forms containing the same drug form but with different sizes were almost completely overlapped. Therefore, these 3D printed matrix solid forms can have their drug content customised by adjusting their size, without changing their controlled release behaviour.

Keywords: 3D printing; Additive manufacturing; Glucocorticoid; Hot melt extrusion; Implants; Polyester; Printlets.