title: Adaptation of pharmaceutical excipients to FDM 3D printing for the fabrication of patient-tailored immediate release tablets.
abstract: This work aims to employ fused deposition modelling 3D printing to fabricate immediate release pharmaceutical tablets with several model drugs. It investigates the addition of non-melting filler to methacrylic matrix to facilitate FDM 3D printing and explore the impact of (i) the nature of filler, (ii) compatibility with the gears of the 3D printer and iii) polymer: filler ratio on the 3D printing process. Amongst the investigated fillers in this work, directly compressible lactose, spray-dried lactose and microcrystalline cellulose showed a level of degradation at 135°C whilst talc and TCP allowed consistent flow of the filament and a successful 3D printing of the tablet. A specially developed universal filament based on pharmaceutically approved methacrylic polymer (Eudragit EPO) and thermally stable filler, TCP (tribasic calcium phosphate) was optimised. Four model drugs with different physicochemical properties were included into ready-to-use mechanically stable tablets with immediate release properties. Following the two thermal processes (hot melt extrusion (HME) and fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printing), drug contents were 94.22%, 88.53%, 96.51% and 93.04% for 5-ASA, captopril, theophylline and prednisolone respectively. XRPD indicated that a fraction of 5-ASA, theophylline and prednisolone remained crystalline whilst captopril was in amorphous form. By combining the advantages of thermally stable pharmaceutically approved polymers and fillers, this unique approach provides a low cost production method for on demand manufacturing of individualised dosage forms.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK.
authors.forename: Muzna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sadia
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK.
authors.forename: Agata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sośnicka
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK.
authors.forename: Basel
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Arafat
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK.
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Isreb
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK.
authors.forename: Waqar
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.affiliation: School of Physical Sciences & Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK.
authors.forename: Antonios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kelarakis
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK. Electronic address: MAlbedAlhnan@uclan.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Mohamed A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Alhnan
mesh_terms: D002130:Calcium Phosphates / Q000737:chemistry; D002216:Captopril / Q000737:chemistry; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry; D004339:Drug Compounding / Q000379:methods*; D065546:Drug Liberation; D005079:Excipients / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D007785:Lactose / Q000737:chemistry; D019804:Mesalamine / Q000737:chemistry; D011109:Polymethacrylic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D011239:Prednisolone / Q000737:chemistry; D066330:Printing, Three-Dimensional; D013607:Tablets / Q000737:chemistry*; D013627:Talc / Q000737:chemistry; D013806:Theophylline / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D002130:Calcium Phosphates; D005079:Excipients; D011109:Polymethacrylic Acids; D013607:Tablets; D013627:Talc; C038300:methylmethacrylate-methacrylic acid copolymer; D019804:Mesalamine; D002482:Cellulose; D002216:Captopril; D011239:Prednisolone; D013806:Theophylline; D007785:Lactose; C018392:tricalcium phosphate; C109691:microcrystalline cellulose
keywords: Fused filament fabrication; Patient-specific; Personalized; Three dimensional printing