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• Hot-melt extrusion – filament manufacturing coupled with fused deposition modeling for 3D printed pharmaceuticals -a brief review

  Petra Arany

  Bence Vámosi

  Ildikó Bácskay

  Pálma Fehér

  Views:

  149

  3D printing or additive manufacturing are conquering many industrial fields, just as the pharmaceutical industry. There are several types of additive manufacturing processes, however one technology, the fused deposition modeling is outstanding in the pharmaceutical field. Fused deposition modelling uses filaments for printing. These filaments are made out of polymers that has diverse properties, suitable for containing active pharmaceutical ingredients for various usages. These filaments can be produced by hot-melt extrusion process, that the pharmaceutical field already uses for several formulations. In order to get a useable filament, we need more machines than just the extruder. Through the process, the feeder, the conveyor and the winder machines are necessary to get the desired homogeneity, filament diameter, and a ready to use filament roll to easily couple hot melt extrusion with fused deposition modeling. Polymers for pharmaceutical usage are already exists, including polyethylene glycols, polylactic acids, hydroxypropyl cellulose and many more. Finding polymers that has the appropriate rheological properties, heat- and chemical stability to apply in hot-melt extrusion-, and fused deposition modeling process, turned out to be challenging, but not impossible task. In conclusion, hot melt extrusion is a reliable method to produce polymer filaments for fused deposition modeling, that is suitable to print pharmaceuticals, however, the knowledge of this field is continuously expanding, thanks to the researchers around the world.

• Formulation and investigation of Lactobacillus rhamnosus cek-R1 filled alginate microspheres with different excipients

  Pálma Fehér

  Boglárka Papp

  Liza Józsa

  Dávid Sinka

  Eszter Fidrus

  Fruzsina Nacsa

  Ildikó Bácskay

  Gábor Kardos

  Views:

  194

  Microspheres are spherical particles containing the active substance, in our case bacterial probiotic strain Lactobacillus rhamnosus (L. rhamnosus), in an individually coated form. L. rhamnosus is a natural constituent of the human intestinal flora and is known to improve immune function, enhance healing of the intestinal mucosa, reduce inflammation, bloating and diarrhoea.  

  The aim of our experimental work was to formulate sodium alginate microspheres containing L. rhamnosus bacterial strain as active ingredient and prebiotic (galactooligosaccharide, pectin, inulin). The microspheres were formulated using Büchi Encapsulator equipment, after which the entrapment efficiency was measured. The lyophilized product was filled into hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) capsules and was subjected to a dissolution assay using Erweka equipment. The number of viable L. rhamnosus was determined from samples of the dissolution fluid.  The microspheres are lyophilised to improve shelf-life and facilitate filling into traditional capsules. The number of viable bacteria in the lyophilizate was determined by inoculation on medium and standard microdilution test. Microspheres containing different compositions of pro- and prebiotics were formulated, and their antioxidant capacity was detected by 2,2-diphenyl-l-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). We tested the anti-inflammatory effect of the microspheres using human IL-4 ELISA Kit on colon adenocarcinoma (CaCo-2) cell line.