Development of novel and industrially-relevant liquid pharmaceutical formulations to enable paediatric combination drug therapy

从单一制剂中共包封和共递送两种或更多种功能分子是一个新兴的学术和工业研究领域，具有广泛的应用。更具体地说，在制药工业中，已经在该领域进行了广泛的研究，以开发固定剂量组合（FDC）药物来治疗需要多种活性药物成分（API）的病症。液体制剂提供剂量灵活性，同时满足特定患者人群（例如儿科）的剂型需求。此外，乳液由于其多相属性、易于形成以及它们在目前市场上的许多结构化液体/半液体产品中的应用，是用于功能分子的包封/受控递送的有吸引力的微结构。在该项目中，将探索从药物相关材料制造新型亚微米颗粒的加工和配方路线。制造的颗粒将用于封装儿科相关的API，并将开发不同的策略来触发和优化API释放，同时设计方法来促进其Pickering功能。将采用简单的o/w乳剂来优化次要活性成分的包封和释放。一旦更好地理解了从颗粒或液滴中包封和释放单一API的机制，将两者结合起来研究两种API的共包封和共递送。

Co-encapsulation and co-delivery of two or more functional molecules from a single formulation is an emerging academic and industrial research field for a wide range of applications. More specifically, in the pharmaceutical industry there has been extensive research in this area, in order to develop fixed-dose combination (FDC) drugs to treat conditions where multiple active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are required. Liquid formulations offer dosage flexibility, while addressing dosage form needs of specific patient populations (e.g. paediatrics). In addition, emulsions are attractive microstructures for the encapsulation/controlled delivery of functional molecules due to their multiphase attributes, ease of formation, as well as their utilisation in a number of structured liquid/semi-liquid products currently on the market. In this project, processing and formulation routes for the fabrication of novel sub-micrometre particles from pharmaceutically-relevant materials will be explored. The fabricated particles will be used to encapsulate an API of paediatric relevance, and different strategies will be developed to trigger and optimise the API release, while devising approaches to promote their Pickering functionality. Simple o/w emulsions will be employed to optimise the encapsulation and release of a secondary active ingredient. Once a better understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the encapsulation and release of a sole API from either particles or liquid droplets is achieved, the two will be combined to investigate the co-encapsulation and co-delivery of two APIs.