To improve the efficacy of anti-tuberculosis
(anti-TB) therapy,
drug–drug co-crystallization stands for an alternative approach
to settle the tuberculosis problem. Directly co-crystallizing two
typical parent anti-TB drugs (pyrazinamide, PZA and isoniazid, INH)
into a single binary co-crystal could not be obtained successfully.
Multicomponent eutectic are highly effective and useful for enhancing
the dissolution rate, bioavailability, and physical stability of the
poorly water-soluble active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) drugs,
when the attempts of forming a binary co-crystal have failed. Therefore,
the ternary eutectic composition conception was proposed in this study,
in which fumaric acid (FA) was chosen as the molecule to connect two
first-line anti-tubercular drugs. First of all, three starting materials
(including PZA, INH, and FA) were grinded at a 1:1:1 molar ratio,
the eutectic composition was investigated through vibrational spectroscopic
techniques, including terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS)
and Raman spectroscopy. Additionally, the density functional theory
(DFT) was utilized to simulate the optimized structures and vibrational
modes of two possible theoretical eutectic composition forms. The
THz absorption spectrum of the theoretical form I shows much more
consistency with the experimental results than that of form II. Raman
spectra also help to characterize the differences in vibrational modes
between the eutectic composition and the starting parent compounds.
The results provide us with both structural information and intermolecular
hydrogen bonding interactions within specific multicomponent eutectic
composition formulations based on Raman and terahertz vibrational
spectroscopic techniques in combination with theoretical calculations.