Design, Optimization and Evaluation of Lurasidone Hydrochloride Nanocrystals as Fast Disintegrating Tablets

Formulation of poorly water-soluble drugs for oral drug delivery has always been a difficult task for formulation scientists. Lurasidone hydrochloride is one such agent which is used to control bipolar depre-ssion. The objective of this study was to formulate and optimize lurasi-done nanosuspension, further formulating optimized nanosuspensions as fast disintegrating tablets for improved patient compliance. In the present study, lurasidone nanosuspension was prepared by nanomilling technique. Optimized nanosuspension has mean particle diameter of 248.9 nm, polydispersity index of 0.127 and zeta potential of 18.1 mV. The lyophilized optimized nanocrystals, optimize nanosuspension as granulating fluid and as top spraying dispersion for granulation in fluid bed granulator being used to formulate fast disintegrating tablets with suitable super disintegrant. Croscarmellose sodium was found to be best superdisintegrant compared to sodium starch glycolate and crospovidone, as its acts by both mechanism swelling and wicking. Its swells 4-8 folds in less than 10 s. Many folds increase in the rate of drug release observed compare to micronized lurasidone and marketed product. There was no change in crystalline nature after nanomilling as characterized by XRD and FTIR, and it was found to be chemically stable with high drug content. The developed fast disintegrating tablets would be an alternative better formulation than its conventional formulation to address its bioavailability issue and for improved patient compliance. However, this should be further confirmed by appropriate in vivo studies.