Enhancement of encapsulation efficiency of nanoemulsion-containing aripiprazole for the treatment of schizophrenia using mixture experimental design

Abstract

Hamid Reza Fard Masoumi, Mahiran Basri, Wan Sarah Samiun, Zahra Izadiyan, Chaw Jiang Lim Nanodelivery Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Abstract: Aripiprazole is considered as a third-generation antipsychotic drug with excellent therapeutic efficacy in controlling schizophrenia symptoms and was the first atypical anti­psychotic agent to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Formulation of nanoemulsion-containing aripiprazole was carried out using high shear and high pressure homo­genizers. Mixture experimental design was selected to optimize the composition of nanoemulsion. A very small droplet size of emulsion can provide an effective encapsulation for delivery system in the body. The effects of palm kernel oil ester (3–6 wt%), lecithin (2–3 wt%), Tween 80 (0.5–1 wt%), glycerol (1.5–3 wt%), and water (87–93 wt%) on the droplet size of aripiprazole nanoemulsions were investigated. The mathematical model showed that the optimum formulation for preparation of aripiprazole nanoemulsion having the desirable criteria was 3.00% of palm kernel oil ester, 2.00% of lecithin, 1.00% of Tween 80, 2.25% of glycerol, and 91.75% of water. Under optimum formulation, the corresponding predicted response value for droplet size was 64.24 nm, which showed an excellent agreement with the actual value (62.23 nm) with residual standard error <3.2%. Keywords: schizoaffective disorder, antipsychotic drug, bipolar I disorder, D-optimal mixture design, optimization formulation