Development of a 3D Printed Coating Shell to Control the Drug Release of Encapsulated Immediate-Release Tablets

Abstract

The use of 3D printing techniques to control drug release has flourished in the past decade, although there is no generic solution that can be applied to the full range of drugs or solid dosage forms. The present study provides a new concept, using the 3D printing technique to print a coating system in the form of shells with various designs to control/modify drug release in immediate-release tablets. A coating system of cellulose acetate in the form of an encapsulating shell was printed through extrusion-based 3D printing technology, where an immediate-release propranolol HCl tablet was placed inside to achieve a sustained drug release profile. The current work investigated the influence of shell composition by using different excipients and also by exploring the impact of shell size on the drug release from the encapsulated tablet. Three-dimensional printed shells with different ratios of rate-controlling polymer (cellulose acetate) and pore-forming agent (D-mannitol) showed the ability to control the amount and the rate of propranolol HCl release from the encapsulated tablet model. The shell-print approach also showed that space/gap available for drug dissolution between the shell wall and the enclosed tablet significantly influenced the release of propranolol HCl. The modified release profile of propranolol HCl achieved through enclosing the tablet in a 3D printed controlled-release shell followed Korsmeyer–Peppas kinetics with non-Fickian diffusion. This approach could be utilized to tailor the release profile of a Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) class I drug tablet (characterized by high solubility and high permeability) to improve patient compliance and promote personalized medicine.

3D Printing of Tunable Zero-Order Release Printlets

“…Specifically, the inclusion of high molecular weight PEO (7,000,000 Da) created a swellable hydrogel that dissolved slowly allowing the drug to be release by both diffusion and polymer dissolution. Similar n values have been reported in previous studies for 3D printed tablets with zero-order release profiles [ 34 , 59 ].…”

“…A linear release profile was maintained for ~14 h, reaching 60–70% of the drug released. A different approach enclosing a conventional immediate release tablet within a 3D printed controlled-release shell was also proposed, achieving zero-order drug release profiles [ 34 ]. Semi-solid extrusion technology was recently used to conduct a clinical study in pediatric patients in a hospital setting [ 35 ].…”

Evaluation of Biodegradable PVA-Based 3D Printed Carriers during Dissolution

“…The most widely investigated type of free form fabrication is extrusion printing, in which the technique can be divided by the step of melting the used materials or not. The Pressure Assisted Microsyringe System (PAM) utilizes the components without melting them [ 10 ], while Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) uses the melted excipients to create the layer-by-layer structure of the 3D object [ 9 ]. The mixture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), polymers, and other excipients gives a great opportunity to modify the viscosity of the preprinted materials, and therefore there is no need for melting the semi-solid substrates [ 11 ].…”

3D-Printed Drug Delivery Systems: The Effects of Drug Incorporation Methods on Their Release and Antibacterial Efficiency

“…In this model the values of n represent the diffusion component which describe the drug release kinetics. For disk shaped samples, the n value for a Fickian diffusion mechanism should be located around 0.5 [35,36]. As can be seen in the supplementary Table S1, the n values obtained from the fitting were 0.42, 0.52, 0.39 and 0.38 for s2.5, s7.5, p2.5 and p7.5, respectively.…”