Microemulsion Utility in Pharmaceuticals

A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Pharmacy and Formulation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2024 | Viewed by 3449

Special Issue Editors

Faculty of Health Sciences and Sports, Macao Polytechnic University, Macau, China
Interests: drug delivery; nanocrystals; emulsions; nanoparticles

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Guest Editor
College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Interests: oral delivery of poorly water-soluble drugs; nanocrystals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit an article to this Special Issue, entitled “Microemulsion Utility in Pharmaceuticals”. Microemulsions and nanoemulsions are lipid-based liquid systems of water, oil, and stabilizers. Their unique structures and properties endow them with good stability, excellent biocompatibility, rich tunability, and wide applicability. Micro/nanoemulsions have shown great application results and increasing potential in various fields of pharmaceuticals, especially in drug delivery.

This Special Issue aims to provide a forum to promote the development and biomedical applications of micro/nanoemulsions. Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Potential topics include the following: novel stabilizers, types, and preparations of micro/nanoemulsions; mechanisms and factors governing the formation and stability of micro/nanoemulsions; achievements of micro/nanoemulsions in terms of enhanced drug delivery via various routes, e.g., oral, dermal, pulmonary, and parenteral administration; the in vivo fates of micro/nanoemulsions and factors affecting their fates; clinical dosage forms; and quality control. Other submissions that facilitate the development of micro/nanoemulsions are also welcome.

Dr. Tao Yi
Dr. Jifen Zhang
Dr. Yi Lu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmaceutics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • microemulsions
  • nanoemulsions
  • drug delivery
  • preparation
  • stability
  • characterization
  • biomedical applications
  • bioavailability
  • permeability
  • controlled release
  • in vivo fate

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 3474 KiB  
Article
Triple-Emulsion-Based Antibubbles: A Step Forward in Fabricating Novel Multi-Drug Delivery Systems
by Rabia Zia, Albert T. Poortinga, Akmal Nazir, Salahdein Aburuz and Cornelus F. van Nostrum
Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(12), 2757; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15122757 - 12 Dec 2023
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Abstract
Developing carriers capable of efficiently transporting both hydrophilic and lipophilic payloads is a captivating focus within the pharmaceutical and drug delivery research domain. Antibubbles, constituting an innovative encapsulation system designed for drug delivery purposes, have garnered scientific interest thanks to their distinctive water-in-air-in-water [...] Read more.
Developing carriers capable of efficiently transporting both hydrophilic and lipophilic payloads is a captivating focus within the pharmaceutical and drug delivery research domain. Antibubbles, constituting an innovative encapsulation system designed for drug delivery purposes, have garnered scientific interest thanks to their distinctive water-in-air-in-water (W1/A/W2) structure. However, in contrast to their precursor, i.e., nanoparticle-stabilized W1/O/W2 double emulsion, traditional antibubbles lack the ability to accommodate a lipophilic payload, as the intermediary (volatile) oil layer of the emulsion is replaced by air during the antibubble fabrication process. Therefore, here, we report the fabrication of triple-emulsion-based antibubbles (O1/W1/A/W2), in which the inner aqueous phase was loaded with a nanoemulsion stabilized by various proteins, including whey, soy, or pea protein isolates. As model drugs, we employed the dyes Nile red in the oil phase and methylene blue in the aqueous phase. The produced antibubbles were characterized regarding their size distribution, entrapment efficiency, and stability. The produced antibubbles demonstrated substantial entrapment efficiencies for both lipophilic (ranging from 80% to 90%) and hydrophilic (ranging from 70% to 82%) components while also exhibiting an appreciable degree of stability during an extended rehydration period of two weeks. The observed variations among different antibubble variants were primarily attributed to differences in protein concentration rather than the type of protein used. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microemulsion Utility in Pharmaceuticals)
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14 pages, 4553 KiB  
Article
Pickering Emulsions Enhance Oral Bioavailability of Curcumin Nanocrystals: The Effect of Oil Types
by Yuze Sheng, Qin Yu, Yanping Huang, Quangang Zhu, Zhongjian Chen, Wei Wu, Tao Yi and Yi Lu
Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(5), 1341; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15051341 - 26 Apr 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1628
Abstract
Nanocrystals (NCs) have the potential to enhance the oral bioavailability of Class IV drugs in the Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS) due to the absorption of the intact crystals. The performance is compromised by the dissolution of NCs. Drug NCs have recently been adopted [...] Read more.
Nanocrystals (NCs) have the potential to enhance the oral bioavailability of Class IV drugs in the Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS) due to the absorption of the intact crystals. The performance is compromised by the dissolution of NCs. Drug NCs have recently been adopted as solid emulsifiers to prepare nanocrystal self-stabilized Pickering emulsions (NCSSPEs). They are advantageous in high drug loading and low side effects due to the specific drug loading mode and the absence of chemical surfactants. More importantly, NCSSPEs may further enhance the oral bioavailability of drug NCs by impeding their dissolution. This is especially true for BCS IV drugs. In this study, curcumin (CUR), a typical BCS IV drug, was adopted to prepare CUR-NCs stabilized Pickering emulsions using either indigestible (isopropyl palmitate, IPP) or digestible (soybean oil, SO) oils, i.e., IPP-PEs and SO-PEs. The optimized formulations were spheric with CUR-NCs adsorbed on the water/oil interface. The CUR concentration in the formulation reached 20 mg/mL, which was far beyond the solubility of CUR in IPP (158.06 ± 3.44 μg/g) or SO (124.19 ± 2.40 μg/g). Moreover, the Pickering emulsions enhanced the oral bioavailability of CUR-NCs, being 172.85% for IPP-PEs and 152.07% for SO-PEs. The digestibility of the oil phase affected the amounts of CUR-NCs that remained intact in lipolysis and, thus, the oral bioavailability. In conclusion, converting NCs into Pickering emulsions provides a novel strategy to enhance the oral bioavailability of CUR and BCS IV drugs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microemulsion Utility in Pharmaceuticals)
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