Miscibility of Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) in Supercritical fluids

In a polymer based drug delivery system, the polymer material surrounds the drug and delivers the sub-stance to the desired target. Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) is the most widely used control-release system for many drugs with a short half-life, low stability, easy decomposition, and non-toxic side effects. Supercritical fluid (SCF) technology can be used to prepare or micronize drug-loaded particles without additional purification or cleaning procedures. In this work, the liquid-liquid phase transition of PLGA in several supercritical fluids, such as dimethyl ether (DME), CO2, chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22), and trifluoromethane (HFC-23), has been investigated. PLGA with a higher content of glycolide in the copolymer backbone shows upper critical solution temperature (UCST)-type phase behavior. Alternatively, in supercritical HCFC-22, lower critical solution temperature (LCST)-type phase behavior has been observed. The ratio of lactide to glycolide in the PLGA copolymer backbone majorly controls the phase behavior including the pressure-temperature (p-T), temperature-polymer weight fraction (T -w), pressure-density (p -q), and temperature-density (T -q) isopleths. The phase behaviors of PLGA in SCF CO2 and DME change from UCST-to LCST-type behavior with an increase in the lactide content. In contrast, PLGA in SCF HCFC-22 exhibits LCST-type phase behavior for all PLGA copolymers irrespective of the lactide content. Such phase behaviors are described well by the perturbed-chain statistical associ-ating fluid theory (PC-SAFT) in a wide range of temperature (300-395 K) and pressure (3-310 MPa) with temperature-independent binary interaction parameters. In addition, significant differences have been observed in the solubility of PLGA in different SCFs; CO2 being the poorest solvent, and HCFC-22 being the best solvent.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In a polymer-based drug delivery system, the polymer material entwines the drug and transports it to the desired target. Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) is a widely utilized controlled-release system for drugs with short half-lives, low stability, easy decomposition, and non-toxic side effects. Supercritical fluid (SCF) technology can be employed to prepare or micronize drug-loaded particles without the need for additional purification or cleaning procedures. The liquid-liquid phase transition behavior of PLGA in several supercritical fluids, including dimethyl ether (DME), CO2, chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22), and trifluoromethane (HFC-23), has been investigated. The phase behavior of PLGA is primarily controlled by the lactide-to-glycolide ratio in the copolymer backbone.