Pharmaceutical Usefulness of Biopharmaceutics Classification System: Overview and New Trend

Youn, Yu-Seok,Lee, Ju-Ho,Jeong, Seong-Hoon,Shin, Beom-Soo,Park, Eun-Seok The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and 2010 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.40 No.special

Since the introduction of the biopharmaceutics classification system (BCS) in 1995, it has viewed as an effective tool to categorize drugs in terms of prediction for bioavailability (BA) and bioequivalence (BE). The BCS consist of four drug categories: class I (highly soluble and highly permeable), class II (low soluble and highly permeable), class III (highly soluble and low permeable) and class IV (low soluble and low permeable), and almost all drugs belong to one of these categories. Likewise, classifying drugs into four categories according to their solubility and permeability is simple and relatively not controversial, and thus the FDA adopted the BCS as a science-based approach in establishing a series of regulatory guidance for the industry. Actually, many pharmaceutical companies have gained a lot of benefits, which directly connect to cost loss and failure decrease in the early stage of drug development. Recently, instead of solubility, using dissolution characteristics (e.g. intrinsic dissolution rate) have provided an improvement in the classification in correlating more closely with in vivo drug dissolution rather than solubility by itself. Furthermore, a newly modified-version of BCS, biopharmaceutics drug disposition classification system (BDDCS), which classify drugs into four categories according to solubility and metabolism, has been introduced and gained much attention as a new insight in respect with the drug classification. This report gives a brief overview of the BCS and its implication, and also introduces the recent new trend of drug classification.

Functional Polymers for Drug Delivery Systems in Nanomedicines

Lee, Eun-Seong,Kim, Ji-Hoon,Yun, Jeong-Min,Lee, Kyung-Soo,Park, Ga-Young,Lee, Beom-Jin,Oh, Kyung-Taek The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and 2010 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.40 No.special

Polymeric based nanomedicines have been developed for diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases in human body. The nanosized drug delivery systems having various structures such as micelles, nanogels, drug-conjugates, and polyplex were investigated for a great goal in pharmaceutics: increasing therapeutic efficacy for diseases and decreasing drug toxicity for normal tissues. The functional polymers used for constituting these drug delivery systems should have several favorable properties such as stimuli-responsibility and biodegrdability for controlled drug release, and solublization capacity for programmed drug encapsulation. This review discusses recent developments and trends of functional polymers (e.g., pH-sensitive polymers, biodegradable polymers, and cationic polymers) used for nanosized drug carriers.

Material Properties and Compressibility Using Heckel and Kawakita Equation with Commonly Used Pharmaceutical Excipients

Choi, Du-Hyung,Kim, Nam-Ah,Chu, Kyung-Rok,Jung, Youn-Jung,Yoon, Jeong-Hyun,Jeong, Seong-Hoon The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and 2010 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.40 No.4

This study investigated basic material properties and compressibility of commonly used pharmaceutical excipients. Five classes of excipients are selected including starch, lactose, calcium phosphate, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), and povidone. The compressibility was evaluated using compression parameters derived from Heckel and Kawakita equation. The Heckel plot for lactose and dicalcium phosphate showed almost linear relationship. However, for MCC and povidone, curves in the initial phase of compression were observed followed by linear regions. The initial curve was considered as particle rearrangement and fragmentation and then plastic deformation at the later stages of the compression cycle. The Kawakita equation showed MCC exhibited higher compressibility, followed by povidone, lactose, and calcium phosphate. MCC undergoes significant plastic deformation during compression bringing an extremely large surface area into close contact and facilitating hydrogen bond formation between the plastically deformed, adjacent cellulose particles. Lactose compacts are consolidated by both plastic deformation and fragmentation, but to a larger extent by fragmentation. Calcium phosphate has poor binding properties because of its brittle nature. When formulating tablets, selection of suitable pharmaceutical excipients is very important and they need to have good compression properties with decent powder flowability. Material properties tested in this study might give a good guide how to select excipients for tablet formulations and help the formulation scientists design the optimum ones.

Investigation of Degradation Mechanism of Rabeprazole with Solid State Pharmaceutical Excipients

Ren, Shan,Tran, Thao Truong-Dinh,Tran, Phuong Ha-Lien,Rhee, Yun-Seok,Lee, Beom-Jin The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and 2010 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.40 No.6

Rabeprazole sodium (RPN) is known to be very unstable at acidic condition or some acidic pharmaceutical excipients such as acrylic acid polymer (carbomer 934) with carboxylic acids. Thus, degradation mechanism of binary blends of rabeprazole with pharmaceutical excipients in a solid state without using solvents at three different ratios (3:1, 1:1 and 1:3) was investigated using Fourier transform infrad (FTIR) spectroscopy. Alkalizer (MgO), neutral hydroxypropymethylcellulose (HPMC 4000) were also tested for comparison. The binary blends were stored under accelerated conditions ($40^{\circ}C$/75% relative humidity) for two weeks. The concentration of thioether rabeprazole from the binary blends with acidic carbomer 934 increased as the rabeprazole concentration decreased. In addition, the degradation half-life of rabeprazole as well as the relative peak area ratios obtained from FTIR spectra of S=O stretching at $1094.1\;cm^{-1}$ decreased consistently as the fraction of carbomer 934 increased due to its sensitivity between the basic benzimidazole nitrogen and carboxylic acid group of carbomer 934. The physical appearance also turned into strong brown color in the presence of carbomer 934. In contrast, there were no significant changes in the degradation kinetics of rabeprazole with MgO and HPMC 4000 in a solid state. This present study demonstrated that the solid-state compatibility test with the aid of HPLC chromatographic and FTIR spectral analyses could offer a valuable methodology to select suitable pharmaceutical excipients and to elucidate the degradation mechanism of RPN for drug formulations at the early formulation stages.

Haplotype Analysis and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Frequency of Organic Cation Transporter Gene (OCT1 and 2) in Korean Subjects

Kim, Se-Mi,Lee, Sang-No,Yoon, Hwa,Kang, Hyun-Ah,Cho, Hea-Young,Lee, Il-Kwon,Lee, Yong-Bok The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and 2009 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.39 No.5

Organic cation transporters (OCTs) are important for absorption, elimination of many endogenous small organic cations as well as a wide array of drugs and environmental toxins. This gene is located in a cluster on chromosome 6 and OCTs are in major organs such as intestine, liver, kidney, brain and placenta. Therefore, expression levels and function of OCTs directly affect plasma levels and intracellular concentrations of drugs and thereby determine therapeutic response. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of the SNPs on OCT1 (C181T and C1022T) and OCT2 (G808T) to analyze haplotype frequency in healthy Korean population. Human subjects have been genotyped for OCT1 (C181T for 195 subjects and C1022T for 825 subjects), using polymerase chain reaction-based diagnostic tests (RFLP). And for OCT2 (G808T), a total of 861 subjects have been genotyped, using pyrosequencing method. Haplotype was statistically inferred using an algorithm based on the expectation-maximization (EM). OCT1 C181T genotyping showed 100% homozygous wild-type (C/C). OCT1 C1022T genotyping showed wild-type (C/C), heterozygous (C/T) and homozygous mutant-type (T/T) and each accounted for 72.1, 24.5 and 3.4%, respectively. OCT2 G808T genotyping results also showed homozygous wild-type (G/G), heterozygous (G/T) and homozygous mutant-type (T/T) and each took 81.8, 17.9 and 0.3%, respectively. Based on these genotype data, haplotype analysis between OCT1 C181T and OCT1 C1022T has proceeded. The result has revealed that linkage disequilibrium between alleles is not obvious (P=0.0122).

Pharmaceutical Potential of Gelatin as a pH-responsive Porogen for Manufacturing Porous Poly(d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) Microspheres

Kim, Hyun-Uk,Park, Hong-Il,Lee, Ju-Ho,Lee, Eun-Seong,Oh, Kyung-Taek,Yoon, Jeong-Hyun,Park, Eun-Seok,Lee, Kang-Choon,Youn, Yu-Seok The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and 2010 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.40 No.4

Porous poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) microspheres (PLGA MS) have been utilized as an inhalation delivery system and a matrix scaffold system for tissue engineering. Here, gelatin (type A) is introduced as an extractable pH-responsive porogen, which is capable of controlling the porosity and pore size of PLGA microspheres. Porous PLGA microspheres were prepared by a water-in-oil-in-water ($w_1/o/w_2$) double emulsification/solvent evaporation method. The surface morphology of these microspheres was examined by varying pH (2.0~11.0) of water phases, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, their porosity and pore size were monitored by altering acidification time (1~5 h) using a phosphoric acid solution. Results showed that the pore-forming capability of gelatin was optimized at pH 5.0, and that the surface pore-formation was not significantly observed at pHs of < 4.0 or > 8.0. This was attributable to the balance between gel-formation by electrostatic repulsion and dissolution of gelatin. The appropriate time-selection between PLGA hardening and gelatin-washing out was considered as a second significant factor to control the porosity. Delaying the acidification time to ~5 h after emulsification was clearly effective to make pores in the microspheres. This finding suggests that the porosity and pore size of porous microspheres using gelatin can be significantly controlled depending on water phase pH and gelatin-removal time. The results obtained in this study would provide valuable pharmaceutical information to prepare porous PLGA MS, which is required to control the porosity.

Pharmaceutical Devices for Oral Cavity-based Local and Systemic Drug Delivery

Yun, Gyi-Ae,Choi, Sung-Up,Park, Ki-Hwan,Rhee, Yun-Seok,Lee, Beom-Jin,Lee, Jae-Hwi The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and 2010 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.40 No.special

Pharmaceutical technology has primarily focused on the development of the best dosage forms depending on the route of administration. The design of dosage forms is greatly influenced by the route of administration. Due to a variety of advantages such as avoidance of first-pass effect, abundant blood supply and easy access to the absorption site, the oral cavity has frequently been selected as a site for drug delivery. Since the oral cavity is relatively unique from the anatomical and physiological viewpoint, one should always consider these conditions when designing the drug delivery systems for the oral cavity. In this regard, the current review paper was prepared to summarize the essential features of the drug delivery systems utilized in the oral cavity, along with the introduction of various dosage forms developed to date.

Brain-Specific Drug Delivery

Bodor, Nicholas The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and 1992 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.22 No.1

Compaction Simulator Study on Pectin Introducing Dwell Time

Kim, Hyun-Jo,Venkatesh, Gopi The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and 2005 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.35 No.4

Although many scientists have used pectin, its feasibility in terms of tablet manufacturability with a high speed machine has never been evaluated. Therefore, compactibility of different pectin types for large scale tableting operation has been evaluated. The compactibility behavior of powder pectins was studied by a compaction simulator. It was found that pectin on its own does not produce tablets of acceptable quality even at a punch velocity as low as 20 rpm (e.g. low tensile strengths, capping and lamination irrespective of applied compression force). Thus, dwell time was introduced and more hard compact was produced as relaxation time in die increases. It was concluded that frequent structural failure observed in both pectin types was due to lack of plastic deformation, poor compactibility and high elastic recovery.

Physicochemical Characterization and Dissolution Properties of CS-891 with Different Crystallinity

Lee, Woo-Young,Park, Byoung-Woo,Park, Yong-Sun The Korean Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and 2005 Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation Vol.35 No.4

Ground CS-891 (N-[1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1-methylethyl]-3-oxo-4-aza-5a-androst-1-ene-$17{\beta}$-carboxamide) of poorly water soluble drug was obtained using a Heiko Seisakusho model TI-100 vibration mill, and samples with different crystallinity were prepared at mixture ratios of 10:0, 7:3, 5:5, 3:7 and 0:10 (intact;ground CS-891). Physicochemical characterizations were obtained using qualitative and quantitative X-ray diffractometry, different scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Quantasorb surface area analyzer, and controlled atmosphere microbalance. With increase of amorphous CS-891 in mixture ratios, the intensities of X-ray diffraction peaks of crystalline CS-891 were decreased, whereas surface area, water absorption, and exothermic peaks in DSC were increased. The apparent solubility of ground CS-891 was $4.4\;{\mu}g/ml$ and the solubility of intact CS-891 was $3.1\;{\mu}g/ml$ at $37{\pm}1^{\circ}C$. The apparent precipitation rates of CS-891 in a supersaturated solution during the solubility test were increased with an increase of amorphous CS-891, and a crystalline form of CS-891 transformed from amorphous CS-891 after the solubility test was found by X-ray diffraction analysis, DSC and SEM. The dissolution profiles of CS-891 with different crystallinity at $37{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ by the USP paddle method were investigated, and the apparent dissolution rate constant of ground CS-891 was about 5.9-fold higher than that of intact CS-891. A linear relationships between the crystallinity of CS-891 and the apparent dissolution rate constant (r>0.96) were obtained.