Project description
Small crystals of high quality in drug development
Active pharmaceutical ingredients – the stuff that gives pharmaceuticals their bioactivity – are typically produced as crystals. Large crystals can impede dissolution of the compounds in aqueous solvents, posing a challenge to drug development and distribution. Mesocrystals are materials made up of individual small crystals that are aggregated but spatially separated. This format can enhance the penetration of water and dissolution. The EU-funded OMECRY project will apply advanced experimental methods to characterise mesocrystal formation, dissolution rates and solubility to ultimately control mesocrystal formation and support the development of novel ingredients for pharmaceuticals.
Objective
The OMECRY research action aims to enhance the dissolution of pharmaceutical solids in the form of mesocrystals, i.e. to promote the drug development. I will also investigate the formation mechanisms of the organic mesocrystals, and influence of the different additives on these processes. The low dissolution rate and poor aqueous solubility of emerging new drug candidates limit the formulation approaches, clinical application, and marketability in pharmaceutical industry. The preparation of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in the form of mesocrystals can enhance the dissolution rate suitable for drug delivery. The voids between highly oriented nanocrystals and high surface area of hierarchical structure in the non-classical pathway of mesocrystals formation play a role in the process. Different additives can be used to control the self-assembly of particles so that avoiding mesocrystals fusion into single crystals. A suitable additive can be screened through density functional theory calculations. The microstructure of mesocrystals and its transformation and particle growth can be investigated through time-dependent experiments using SEM, TEM and laser diffraction particle size analyser. Computed Tomography will be used for the first time to obtain the density mapping of mesocrystals surface in phase contrast mode. The dissolution rates and solubility of the mesocrystals are characterized and compared to its single crystals. The feasibility of drug dissolution will be investigated through in vitro studies. Although many inorganic mesocrystals has prepared for photocatalysis, energy storage applications, formation APIs in mesocrystals is a new strategy which provides insights that are needed for further understanding of mesocrystals formations thereby improve its applications especially for drug development.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug discovery
- natural scienceschemical sciencescatalysisphotocatalysis
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugs
- engineering and technologynanotechnologynano-materialsnanocrystals
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticslaser physics
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinator
02150 Espoo
Finland