Encapsulation of poorly soluble drugs in yeast glucan particles by spray drying improves dispersion and dissolution properties

In this work, novel amorphous solid dispersions based on yeast glucan particles were produced. Yeast glucan particles are hollow and porous, and they are mainly composed of amorphous polysaccharides. We hypothesized that these particles are suitable candidates for the amorphization of drugs with low water solubility. Model drugs ibuprofen and curcumin were successfully encapsulated in glucan particles by spray drying. Different spray-drying parameters were tested to evaluate the influence of atomizing droplet size and initial solid content on encapsulation efficiency. It was shown that higher solid content and, more significantly, larger droplet sizes lead to higher encapsulation efficiencies. The encapsulation efficiency of ibuprofen (10 wt%) into glucan particles was considerably improved from 41.3 ± 0.5% to 64.3 ± 0.2% by increasing initial solid content and droplet size with the two-fluid nozzle. The spray drying process was further optimized by using the ultrasonic nozzle and it was possible to achieve complete encapsulation of ibuprofen and curcumin without any precipitation of the active compound outside of the glucan particles. Overall, it was possible to produce completely amorphous composites with outstanding wettability and dispersion properties, and with significantly faster dissolution rates when compared to the micronized crude drug.