Fast-dissolving oral drug delivery systems are gaining more interest in the pharmaceutical industry and recently, electrospinning of nanofibrous webs incorporating drugs has been shown to be a very favorable approach for the development of these systems. The large surface area and highly porous structure make nanofibrous webs suitable for fast-dissolving oral drug delivery systems as they readily dissolve or disintegrate upon contact with a liquid medium. Cyclodextrins (CDs) are classified as cyclic oligosaccharides and are used in drug formulations to increase the water-solubility of hydrophobic drug molecules via inclusion complexation with the doughnut-shaped cavity of CD molecules. In this study, we have developed two orally fast-dissolving drug delivery systems by incorporating inclusion complexes of Tetracycline/Cyclodextrin with pullulan—a non-toxic, water-soluble biopolymer—to form nanofibrous webs via electrospinning. Tetracycline is used widely as an antibiotic, but it is poorly water-soluble and suffers from low bioavailability. In our study, hydroxypropyl beta cyclodextrins (HPβCD), which have been already used in the pharmaceutical industry due to their high-water solubility, were used to form inclusion complexes. Through inclusion complexation with HPβCD, the water solubility and thus bioavailability of the drug was enhanced. The electrospinning of Pullulan-Tetracycline/HPβCD solutions has yielded defect-free nanofibers collected in the form of self-standing and flexible nanofibrous webs. These electrospun nanofibrous webs have readily disintegrated when wetted with artificial saliva. The results indicate that electrospun Pullulan-Tetracycline/HPβCD web could be promising materials as fast-dissolving oral drug delivery systems.

Fast-dissolving oral drug delivery systems based on pullulan/drug-cyclodextrin inclusion complexes

ACS Fall 2021

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