Application of in vitro lipolysis for the development of oral self-emulsified delivery system of nimodipine

Abstract The objective of the current study was to optimize for the first time the formulation variables of self-emulsified drug delivery system (SEDDS) based on drug solubilization during lipolysis under a biorelevant condition of digestion such as lipase activity, temperature, pH, fed-fasting state, etc. Nimodipine (ND), a BCS class II, was used as a model drug to prepare the SEDDS. Various oils, surfactants, and cosurfactants were screened for their solubilization potential of ND. Area of self-emulsification was identified using various ternary phase diagrams. Box-Behnken design was employed to investigate effects of formulation variables on various dispersion, emulsification, and lipolysis characteristics of SEDDS. Among 26 candidate formulations, highest ND solubility of 12.72%, 11.09% and 11.2% w/w were obtained in peppermint oil as the oily phase, Cremphor EL as the surfactant and PEG400 as the cosurfactant, respectively. Cremphor EL was the most significant factor to decrease SEDDS droplet size to 30.16 nm. On the other hand, increasing the oil concentration was found to significantly increase the polydispersity index up to 0.31. A faster emulsification rate of 3.37%/min was obtained at higher Cremphor El/PEG 400 ratio. Increasing the percentage of lipid components of SEDDS resulted in lower rate of lipolysis with less recovery of ND in aqueous phase. Under fed state, percentage of lipolysis of optimized formulation was less than that observed under fasted state. However, lowest rate and percentage of lipolysis were observed in lipolysis media without phospholipids and bile salts. Hence, this study demonstrated that in vitro lipolysis could be used as a surrogate approach to distinguish effects of formulation variables on fate of SEDDS upon digestion. Further studies are in progress to identify the lipolytic products of the employed excipients by LC-MS/MS.