Electrospinning is increasingly becoming
a viable means of producing
drug delivery vehicles for oral delivery, particularly as issues of
manufacturing scalability are being addressed. In this study, electrospinning
is explored as a taste-masking manufacturing technology for bitter
drugs. The taste-masking polymer Eudragit E PO (E-EPO) was electrospun,
guided by a quality by design approach. Using a design of experiment,
factors influencing the production of smooth fibers were investigated.
Polymer concentration, solvent composition, applied voltage, flow
rate, and gap distance were the parameters examined. Of these, polymer
concentration was shown to be the only statistically significant factor
within the ranges studied (p-value = 0.0042). As
the concentration increased, smoother fibers were formed, coupled
with an increase in fiber diameter. E-EPO (35% w/v) was identified
as the optimum concentration for smooth fiber production. The optimized
processing conditions identified were a gap distance of 175 mm, an
applied voltage of between 15 and 20 kV, and a flow rate of 1 mL/h.
Using this knowledge, the production optimization of electrospun E-EPO
with chlorpheniramine maleate (CPM), a bitter antihistamine drug,
was explored. The addition of CPM in drug loads of 1:6 up to 1:10
CPM/E-EPO yielded smooth fibers that were electrospun under conditions
similar to placebo fibers. Solid-state characterization showed CPM
to be molecularly dispersed in E-EPO. An electronic tasting system,
or E-tongue, indicated good taste-masking performance as compared
to the equivalent physical mixtures. This study therefore describes
a means of producing, optimizing, and assessing the performance of
electrospun taste-masked fibers as a novel approach to the formulation
of CPM and potentially other bitter drug substances.