3D printed drug delivery systems have gained tremendous attention in pharmaceutical research due to their inherent benefits over conventional systems, such as provisions for customized design and personalized dosing. The present study demonstrates a novel approach of drop-on-demand (DoD) droplet deposition to dispense drug solutions precisely on binder jetting-based 3D printed multi-compartment tablets containing 3 model anti-viral drugs (hydroxychloroquine sulfate - HCS, ritonavir and favipiravir). The printing pressure affected the printing quality whereas the printing speed and infill density significantly impacted the volume dispersed on the tablets. Additionally, the DoD parameters such as nozzle valve open time and cycle time affected both dispersing volume and the uniformity of the tablets. The solid-state characterization, including DSC, XRD, and PLM, revealed that all drugs remained in their crystalline forms. Advanced surface analysis conducted by microCT imaging as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Deep Learning (DL) model validation showed a homogenous drug distribution in the printed tablets even at ultra-low doses. For a four-hour
in vitro
drug release study, the drug loaded in the outer layer was released over 90%, and the drug incorporated in the middle layer was released over 70%. In contrast, drug encapsulated in the core was only released about 40%, indicating that outer and middle layers were suitable for immediate release while the core could be applied for delayed release. Overall, this study demonstrates a great potential for tailoring drug release rates from a customized modular dosage form and developing personalized drug delivery systems coupling different 3D printing techniques.
Graphical Abstract
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11095-022-03378-9.
Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a single-step, threedimensional printing (3DP) process that is gaining momentum in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical dosage forms. It also offers opportunities for manufacturing various pharmaceutical dosage forms with a wide array of drug delivery systems. This research aimed to introduce carbonyl iron as a multifunctional magnetic and heat conductive ingredient for the fabrication of oral tablets containing isoniazid, a model antitubercular drug, via SLS 3DP process. Furthermore, the effects of magnetic iron particles on the drug release from the SLS printed tablets under a specially designed magnetic field was studied. Optimization of tablet quality was performed by adjusting SLS printing parameters. The independent factors studied were laser scanning speed, hatching space, and surface/chamber temperature. The responses measured were printed tablets' weight, hardness, disintegration time, and dissolution performance. It has been observed that, for the drug formulation with carbonyl iron, due to its inherent thermal conductivity, sintering tablets required relatively lower laser energy input to form the tablets of the same quality attributes as the other batches that contained no magnetic particles. Also, printed tablets with carbonyl iron released 25% more drugs under a magnetic field than those without it. It can be claimed that magnetic nanoparticles appear as an alternative conductive material to facilitate the sintering process during SLS 3DP of dosage forms.
Recently, various innovative technologies have been developed for the enhanced delivery of biologics as attractive formulation targets including polymeric micro and nanoparticles. Combined with personalized medicine, this area can offer a great opportunity for the improvement of therapeutics efficiency and the treatment outcome. Herein, a novel manufacturing method has been introduced to produce protein-loaded chitosan particles with controlled size. This method is based on an additive manufacturing technology that allows for the designing and production of personalized particulate based therapeutic formulations with a precise control over the shape, size, and potentially the geometry. Sprayed multi adsorbed-droplet reposing technology (SMART) consists of the high-pressure extrusion of an ink with a well determined composition using a pneumatic 3D bioprinting approach and flash freezing the extrudate at the printing bed, optionally followed by freeze drying. In the present study, we attempted to manufacture trypsin-loaded chitosan particles using SMART. The ink and products were thoroughly characterized by dynamic light scattering, rheometer, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) and Circular Dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. These characterizations confirmed the shape morphology as well as the protein integrity over the process. Further, the effect of various factors on the production were investigated. Our results showed that the concentration of the carrier, chitosan, and the lyoprotectant concentration as well as the extrusion pressure have a significant effect on the particle size. According to CD spectra, SMART ensured Trypsin’s secondary structure remained intact regardless of the ink composition and pressure. However, our study revealed that the presence of 5% (w/v) lyoprotectant is essential to maintain the trypsin’s proteolytic activity. This study demonstrates, for the first time, the viability of SMART as a single-step efficient process to produce biologics-based stable formulations with a precise control over the particulate morphology which can further be expanded across numerous therapeutic modalities including vaccines and cell/gene therapies.
Recent focus on cancer immunotherapies has led to significant interest in the development of therapeutic strategies that can lead to immunogenic cell death (ICD), which can cause activation of an immune response against tumor cells and improve immunotherapy outcomes by enhancing the immunogenicity of the tumor microenvironment. In this work, a nanomedicine-mediated combination therapy is used to deliver the ICD inducers doxorubicin (Dox), a chemotherapeutic agent, and indocyanine green (ICG), a photothermal agent. These agents are loaded into nanoparticles (NPs) of bovine serum albumin (BSA) that are prepared through a desolvation process. The formulation of BSA NPs is optimized to achieve NPs of 102.6 nm in size and loadings of 8.55 % and 5.69 % (w/w) for ICG and Dox, respectively. The controlled release of these agents from the BSA NPs is confirmed. Upon laser irradiation for 2.5 min, NPs at a dose of 62.5 𝝁g mL −1 are able to increase the temperature of the cells by 7 °C and thereby inhibit the growth of B16F10 melanoma cells in vitro. Surface presentation of heat shock proteins and calreticulin from the cells after treatment confirmed the ability of the Dox/ICG loaded BSA NPs to induce ICD in the melanoma cells.
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