Nanostructured microspheres produced by supercritical fluid extraction of emulsions

The system poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid/ piroxicam (PLGA/PX) was selected, as a model system, to evaluate the effectiveness of supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO(2)) extraction of the oily phase (ethyl acetate) from oil-in-water emulsions used in the production of polymer/drug microspheres for sustained drug release applications. The influence of process parameters like operating pressure and temperature, flow rate and contacting time between the emulsion and SC-CO(2) was studied with respect to the microsphere size, distribution and solvent residue. Different polymer concentrations in the oily phase were also tested in emulsions formulation to monitor their effects on droplets and microspheres size distribution at fixed mixing conditions. Spherical PLGA microspheres loaded with PX (10% w/w) with mean sizes ranging between 1 and 3 microm and very narrow size distributions were obtained due to the short supercritical processing time (30 min) that prevents the aggregation phenomena typically occurring during conventional solvent evaporation process. A solvent residue smaller than 40 ppm was also obtained at optimized operating conditions. DSC and SEM-EDX analyses confirmed that the produced microparticles are formed by a solid solution of PLGA and PX and that the drug is entrapped in an amorphous state into the polymeric matrix with an encapsulation efficiency in the range of 90-95%. Drug release rate studies showed very uniform drug concentration profiles, without any burst effect, confirming a good dispersion of the drug into the polymer particles.