Influence of microbubbles on the production of spray-dried inhalable particles

LOREANA GALLO; MARCOS SERAIN; CARLOS RENAUDO; EDUARDO LÓPEZ; VERÓNICA BUCALÁ

DRYING TECHNOLOGY

TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2021 p. 1 - 13

0737-3937

The aim of this work was to study the effect of gas microbubbles on the production of par-ticles suitable for inhalatory administration by a spray drying technology. An antiasthmaticmodel drug (sodium cromoglycate) was selected in order to evaluate the effect of differentgases (air, CO 2 and N 2 ) and spray drying operating conditions on the particles aerosolizationperformance. To this end, gas supersaturated aqueous drug solutions were obtained in a pres-surized vessel and then processed by spray drying. The process yield, morphology, size, bulkand tap densities, moisture content and aerosolization properties of the particles were eval-uated. The presence of microbubbles in the spray drying feed led to powders with smallermean geometric sizes than particles obtained without bubbles. The gas-water solubilityemerged as a key parameter to obtain inhalatory particles with good aerosolization proper-ties. High water-soluble gases led to bigger particles, while low soluble ones allow to pro-duce smaller particles. The use of air (with an intermediate water solubility respect to CO 2and N 2 ) and an adequate set of spray drying operating conditions allowed to obtain sodiumcromoglycate particles with superior aerosolization properties than a commercial formula-tion. Overall, a novel, simple and low-cost method to produce inhalatory particles withexcellent aerosolization properties was developed by supersaturating the spray drying liquidfeed without using pore-forming agents during the production step, or carriers in the finalformulation.