Lipid-Polymer Hybrid Nanoparticles for Solubility Enhancement of Tetrahydrocurcumin in a Noval Discriminative Dissolution Medium

A promising strategy to overcome the problems in treatment with pharmaceutical active ingredients involves the development of suitable drug carrier systems using nanoparticles (NPs). Tetrahydrocurcumin (THC) is an active metabolite of curcumin, which comes under BCS Class II due to its less solubility. A novel, integrated system known as lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (LPH-NPs) has been introduced in an effort to mitigate limitations associated with unpredictable physicochemical properties. The particle size, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency and morphology were characterized for the prepared formulation. In-vitro drug release, release kinetics and stability of the prepared LPH-NPs were evaluated. The particle sizes of all the prepared 27 LPH-NPs formulations were found to be in the range of 98.06 to 158 nm. The formulation F14 has shown the maximum encapsulation efficiency (80.3%) with less particle size (129.8 nm) and PDI (0.085). Also the zeta potential was found to be -36.4 and it confirms the stability of the formulation. The TEM and AFM morphological images of formulation F14 showed spherical, smooth-surfaced, and uniform sized particles. The formulations F13, F14, F15, F16, F17 and F18 showed maximum drug release of 93.1, 95.1, 91.6, 86.2, 89.7 and 87.3%, respectively when compared to pure drug THC. The drug release from the formulation and kinetic results was clearly indicative of sustained release of THC. The obtained drug release results evident that the solubility of THC is improved with LPH-NPs. Hence the developed formulation would enable the increased oral bioavailability of THC.