PFGSE-NMR study of pH-triggered behavior in pluronic-ibuprofen solutions

The effect of drug addition and pH variation on Pluronic copolymer solutions has been investigated using pulsed-field gradient (PFG) NMR. Addition of ibuprofen to Pluronic P104 in solution reduced the overall pH from 7.5 to 4.5, as well as promoting micellization; a substantial increase in the hydrodynamic radius of the micelles, from 57.7 to 102.3 A was observed, along with an increase in the fraction of polymer micellized. The aggregation behavior was attributed primarily to the presence of ibuprofen, rather than the reduction in pH observed, since the micellization of P104 alone was not found to be significantly altered by pH changes in the region of interest. Conversely, for the P104 solutions containing ibuprofen, a strong pH-dependence was observed when raising the pH above the pK(a) of ibuprofen. The data obtained showed that, above pH 4.5, ibuprofen is gradually released from the micelles as a result of its improved solubility, leading to a reduction in the polymer aggregation toward that observed before the addition of ibuprofen.