Research paperA comparative assessment of nanocomposites vs. amorphous solid dispersions prepared via nanoextrusion for drug dissolution enhancement

•Extruded milled griseofulvin (GF, drug) suspensions along with additional polymers.•Formed HPC-based nanocomposite and Soluplus-based amorphous solid dispersion (ASD).•Compared dissolution response under non-supersaturating conditions (low drug dose).•Drug nanocrystals in the nanocomposite dissolved faster than amorphous drug in ASD.•Showed the impact of drug particle size and extrudate (matrix) size on dissolution.

Nanoextrusion was used to produce extrudates of griseofulvin, a poorly water-soluble drug, with the objective of examining the impact of drug particle size and polymeric matrix type-size of the extrudates on drug dissolution enhancement. Hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) and Soluplus® were used to stabilize wet-milled drug suspensions and form matrices of the extrudates. The wet-milled suspensions along with additional polymer (HPC/Soluplus®) were fed to a co-rotating twin-screw extruder, which dried the suspensions and formed various extrudates. The extrudates were dry-milled and sieved into samples with two different sizes. A wet-milled suspension was also spray-dried in comparison to nanoextrusion. Due to differences in polymer-drug miscibility, two forms of the drug were prepared: extrudates with nano/micro-crystalline drug particles dispersed in the HPC matrix as a secondary phase (nano/microcomposites) and extrudates with amorphous drug molecularly dispersed within the Soluplus® matrix (amorphous solid dispersion, ASD). Under non-supersaturating conditions in the dissolution medium, drug nanocrystals in the HPC-based nanocomposites dissolved faster than the amorphous drug in Soluplus®-based ASD. While smaller extrudate particles led to faster drug release for the ASD, such matrix size effect was weaker for the nanocomposites. These findings suggest that nanocrystal-based formulations could outperform ASDs for fast dissolution of low-dose drugs.

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