Porous Silica-Supported Solid Lipid Particles for Enhanced Solubilization of Poorly Soluble Drugs

Low dissolution of drugs in the intestinal fluid can limit their effectiveness in oral therapies. Here, a novel porous silica-supported solid lipid system was developed to optimize the oral delivery of drugs with limited aqueous solubility. Using lovastatin (LOV) as the model poorly water-soluble drug, two porous silica-supported solid lipid systems (SSL-A and SSL-S) were fabricated from solid lipid (glyceryl monostearate, GMS) and nanoporous silica particles Aerosil 380 (silica-A) and Syloid 244FP (silica-S) via immersion/solvent evaporation. SSL particles demonstrated significantly higher rate and extent of lipolysis in comparison with the pure solid lipid, depending on the lipid loading levels and the morphology. The highest lipid digestion was observed when silica-S was loaded with 34% (w/w) solid lipid, and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis confirmed the encapsulation of up to 2% (w/w) non-crystalline LOV in this optimal SSL-S formulation. Drug dissolution under non-digesting intestinal conditions revealed a three- to sixfold increase in dissolution efficiencies when compared to the unformulated drug and a LOV-lipid suspension. Furthermore, the SSL-S provided superior drug solubilization under simulated intestinal digesting condition in comparison with the drug-lipid suspension and drug-loaded silica. Therefore, solid lipid and nanoporous silica provides a synergistic effect on optimizing the solubilization of poorly water-soluble compound and the solid lipid-based porous carrier system provides a promising delivery approach to overcome the oral delivery challenges of poorly water-soluble drugs.