Development of novel microstructured lipid carriers for dissolution rate enhancement of albendazole

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to develop a microstructured lipid carrier that improves the rate of dissolution of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) Albendazole. Methods: A solvent diffusion method was used for the development of microstructured lipid carriers. The developed carriers were characterized by optical microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and dissolution testing. Results: The morphology of the carriers was irregular, and their size tends to decrease with the addition of modifiers. Furthermore, the diffractograms and the thermograms indicated a loss of crystallinity. The thermograms and infrared spectra showed that there are not chemical incompatibilities between the API and the excipients. When the lipid carrier particles were modified with Aerosil® 200 (specifically when using this excipient at a level of 6% w/w), dissolution was increased up to 85.96±1.17 % of the drug content as per USP test for Albendazole tablets in comparison with 36.13±0.52 % for a lipid carrier formulation without modifiers. Conclusion: It was demonstrated that it is possible to develop a modified lipid carrier that improves the dissolution rate of an API with a low solubility, which was related to the amorphization of the API crystalline structure.