“Ant-Wall” model to study drug release from excipient matrix

Kulveer Singh, Soumitra Satapathi and Prateek K. Jha

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2019, vol. 519, issue C, 98-108

Abstract: We propose a two-dimensional lattice model to study the effects of drug loading, matrix structure, and drug–excipient interactions on the drug release through excipient matrix. Analogy is made with the random walk of ants (drug molecules) in a maze (excipient matrix). Ants can be “blind” (non-aggregating) or “friendly” (aggregating), representing hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs, respectively. Excipient–drug interactions are accounted as the probability of ants (drug molecules) crossing walls (excipient molecules). Monte Carlo simulations of the model are performed to obtain the amount of drug escape (release) as a function of time for different values of drug loading, excipient–drug interaction, and matrix size. Although a Weibull function is able to fit the drug release in the entire time range for the hydrophilic case, two Weibull functions are required in the hydrophobic case signifying an initial burst release followed by a long-time sustained release. The competition between the drug escape and drug aggregation results in the existence of an optimum drug loading for sustained drug release in the case of hydrophobic drugs. Also, the drug release is best controlled at moderate excipient–drug interactions, since strong excipient–drug interactions results in substantial amount of trapped drugs that are never released. Results of this study may provide design rules of matrix formulations for the delivery of poorly soluble drugs and stimuli-responsive drug delivery formulations.

Keywords: Lattice model; Monte Carlo simulation; Controlled drug release; Sustained release; Excipient–drug interactions; Hydrophobicity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437118315425
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:519:y:2019:i:c:p:98-108

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2018.12.029

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().