Amorphous ternary cyclodextrin nanocomposites of telmisartan for oral drug delivery: Improved solubility and reduced pharmacokinetic variability

Despite of advancements in dosage form design and use of multifunctional excipients, improvement in dissolution characteristics of molecules like Telmisartan (TEL) having exceedingly pH dependent and poor solubility profile is still challenging. The present research work explores an innovative particle engineering approach which synergistically coalesce two principally different solubility enhancement strategies namely ternary β-cyclodextrin complexation and top-down nanonization in a unit process. The research was aimed to improve solubility and reduce in vivo variability in pharmacokinetic parameters of TEL irrespective to physiological pH conditions. Ternary β-cyclodextrin nanocomposites of TEL were prepared with high pressure homogenization using meglumine as ternary component. TEL nanocomposites were thoroughly characterized for particle size, surface topology, surface charge, inclusion complexation, crystalinity, dissolution and in vivo pharmacokinetic performance in male wistar rats at fed and fasted state. TEL nanocomposites exhibited average particle size of 698 ± 23 nm. Remarkable improvement in in vitro dissolution characteristics in multimedia and biorelevant media was observed in comparison with plain drug and marketed formulation. Results of in vivo pharmacokinetic studies revealed that, nanocomposites effectively bypass variation in pharmacokinetic parameters at fed and fasted states with 346%, 315%, 301% and 321% increase in relative bioavailability compared to marketed formulation and pure TEL in fed and fasted conditions respectively.

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