Abstract

Nevirapine (NVP) was loaded in polycaprolactone (PCL) matrices to produce vaginal inserts with the aim of preventing HIV transmission. NVP dispersions in PCL were prepared, at 10% (w/w) theoretical loading, measured with respect to the PCL content of the matrices, in the form of (1) NVP only, (2) a physical mixture of NVP with polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 or (c) a solid dispersion (SD) with PEG produced by co-dissolution in ethanol. Characterisation of SD by differential scanning calorimetry and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy suggested transformation of the crystalline structure of NVP to an amorphous form which consequently increased the dissolution rate of drug. A low-loading efficiency of 13% was obtained for NVP-loaded matrices and less than 20% for matrices prepared using physical mixtures of drug and PEG. The loading efficiency was improved significantly to around 40% when a 1:4 NVP-PEG SD was used for matrix production. After 30 days, 40% of the drug content was released from NVP-loaded matrices, 55% from matrices containing 1:4 NVP-PEG physical mixtures and 60% from matrices loaded with 1:4 NVP-PEG SDs. The in vitro anti-viral activity of released NVP was assessed using a luciferase reporter gene assay following the infection of HeLa cells with pseudo-typed HIV-1. NVP released from PCL matrices in simulated vaginal fluid retained over 75% anti-HIV activity compared with the non-formulated NVP control. In conclusion, 1:4 NVP-PEG SDs when loaded in PCL matrices increase drug loading efficiency and improve release behaviour. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 103:2107-2115, 2014.

Authors	Dang, Nhung T. T.; Sivakumaran, Haran; Harrich, David; Shaw, P. Nicholas; Coombes, Allan G. A.
Journal	JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES
Pages	2107-15
Volume	103
Date	1/06/2014
Grant ID
Funding Body	ARC Future Fellowship
URL	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=10.1002/jps.24030
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