No abstract

Bupropion is an atypical antidepressant drug. Fluctuating in its serum levels following oral administration of immediate release dosage forms leads to occasional seizure. The aim of the present work was designing of sustained release bupropion HCl nanospheres suited for pulmonary delivery. Agar nanospheres were prepared by transferring the w/o emulsion to solid in oil (s/o) suspension. Calcium chloride was used as cross-linking agent and hydroxypropyl β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD) was used as permeability enhancer. A response surface D-optimal design was used for optimization of nanospheres. Independent factors included in the design were calcium chloride percent, speed of homogenization, agar percent, and HPβCD percent. Optimum condition was predicted to be achieved when the calcium chloride was set at 7.19%, homogenization speed at 8500 rpm, agar content at 2%, and HPβCD at 0.12%. The optimized nanoparticles showed particle size of 587 nm, zeta potential of −30.9 mV, drug loading efficiency of 38.6%, and release efficiency of 51% until 5 h. The nanospheres showed high degree of bioadhesiveness. D-optimal response surface method is a satisfactory design to optimize the fabrication of bupropion HCl loaded agar nanospheres and these nanospheres can be successively exploited to deliver bupropion in a controlled manner for a sufficiently extended period.

Bupropion HCl is an atypical antidepressant drug with rapid and high first-pass metabolism. Sustained release dosage form of this drug is suggested for reducing its side effects which are mainly seizures. The aim of the present study was to design pulmonary agar nanospheres of bupropion HCl with effective systemic absorption and extended release properties. Bupropion HCl was encapsulated in agar nanospheres by ionic gelation, and characterized for physical and release properties. Pharmacokinetic studies on nanospheres were performed on rats by intratracheal spraying of 5 mg/kg of drug in form of nanospheres compared to intravenous and pulmonary delivery of the same dose as simple solution of the drug. The optimized nanoparticles showed particle size of 320 ± 90 nm with polydispersity index of 0.85, the zeta potential of -29.6 mV, drug loading efficiency of 43.1 ± 0.28% and release efficiency of 66.7 ± 2%. The area under the serum concentration-time profile for the pulmonary nanospheres versus simple solution was 10 237.84 versus 28.8 µg/ml min, Tmax of 360 versus 60 min and the Cmax of 1927.93 versus9.93 ng/ml, respectively. The absolute bioavailability of the drug was 86.69% for nanospheres and 0.25% for pulmonary simple solution. Our results indicate that pulmonary delivery of bupropion loaded agar nanospheres achieves systemic exposure and extends serum levels of the drug.