Drug solubilization limitations

In order to overcome the main limitations of the impregnation processes, connected to the limited solubility of the compounds in the supercritical fluids, Perman [68] proposed an alternative method. A supercritical impregnation process was coupled with a liquid solvent (preferentially water) to enhance the drug solubilization. The system composed of a liquid drug solution and the polymeric support was pressurized with the supercritical fluid. Consequently, the swelled polymer allows rapid diffusional transport of the solute into the polymeric substrate. In different examples, bovine serum albumin microspheres were impregnated with insulin, trypsin and gentamicin (see Table 9.9-5). 

Any enhancing effect of surfactants on drug absorption appears to be related to increased drug solubilization, modification of mucosal permeability, or reduction of resistance of the unstirred water layer at the GI membrane surface. In general, unionic surfactants have little effect on membrane structure but cationic surfactants have been associated with reversible cell loss and loss of goblet cells. These effects must limit consideration of surfactants as absorption promoters, particularly for long term treatment. 

Liposomes are capable of solubilizing both water soluble and lipid soluble drugs. The amount and location of a drug within a liposome is dependent on a number of factors (i) The location of a drug within a liposome is based on the partition coefficient of the drug between aqueous compartments and lipid bilayers, (ii) The maximum amount of drug that can be entrapped within a liposome is dependent on its total solubility in each phase, (iii) Drugs with limited solubility in polar and nonpolar solvents cannot be encapsulated in liposomes, (iv) Efficient capture depends on the... 

One of the most important consequences of micellization from a pharmaceutical point of view is that micelles are capable of solubilizing drugs of limited water solubility (see Chapter 6). Considerable interest centres on the exact location of solubilizates within the micellar structure, as discussed in Chapter 5. 

For highly permeable, poorly soluble drugs given in lower doses, the dissolution rate rather than the saturation solubility is the limiting factor. An increase in dissolution rate due to in vivo solubilization mediated by food intake could theoretically be obtained, but this situation is not always found in vivo. For example, food does not affect the rate and extent of bioavailability for candesartan cilexitil, a very poorly soluble compound [78], An in vitro dissolution and solubility study of this compound in simulated intestinal media provided a potential explanation it was revealed that the solubility was increased as a function of bile concentration as expected, whereas the dissolution rate was not increased by the higher bile concentrations being representative for the fed state (see Fig. 21.14). Thus, although... 

One approach to the study of solubility is to evaluate the time dependence of the solubilization process, such as is conducted in the dissolution testing of dosage forms [70], In this work, the amount of drug substance that becomes dissolved per unit time under standard conditions is followed. Within the accepted model for pharmaceutical dissolution, the rate-limiting step is the transport of solute away from the interfacial layer at the dissolving solid into the bulk solution. To measure the intrinsic dissolution rate of a drug, the compound is normally compressed into a special die to a condition of zero porosity. The system is immersed into the solvent reservoir, and the concentration monitored as a function of time. Use of this procedure yields a dissolution rate parameter that is intrinsic to the compound under study and that is considered an important parameter in the preformulation process. A critical evaluation of the intrinsic dissolution methodology and interpretation is available [71]. 

Certain compounds are known to achieve higher absorption rates from the GI tract if they are taken with food, and this observation has been linked to their solubilization by bile salts [74], Bile salts, especially those of cholic and deoxycholic acids, have been used to solubilize steroid hormones [75], antibiotics [76], and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs [77]. For example, amphotericin B (an antifungal agent) has been solubilized for parenteral use in micelles composed of sodium desoxycholate [78], As illustrated in Fig. 11, the degree of solubilization of carbamazepine by sodium desoxycholate is minimal below the critical micelle concentration but increases rapidly above this value [79]. At sufficiently high concentrations, when the micelles become saturated in carb-amezepine, the apparent solubility reaches a limiting value approximately seven times the true aqueous solubility in the absence of desoxycholate. 

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