Enhancing Albendazole Delivery Using Mesoporous Santa Barbara Amorphous‐15: A Box‐Behnken Design Study

Over 70% of pharmaceutical compounds face the challenge of poor water solubility, which impacts on their bioavailability. This study focuses on the use of Santa Barbara Amorphous-15 (SBA-15) mesoporous silica material as carrier, which is synthesized and characterized to address this limitation. Albendazole (ABZ), an antiparasitic agent with low water solubility, serves as model drug. A Box-Behnken design (BBD) is used to investigate the impact of immersion method loading factors (temperature: 25–50 °C, time: 24–72 h, and SBA-15 amount: 83.2–252.0 mg) on drug loading percentage (DL%) and dissolution efficiency (DE%). The ABZ loading is confirmed by elemental analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Stability tests are performed, comparing drug dissolution profiles and X-ray diffraction patterns immediately after loading and after 12 months of storage at 25 °C and 60% relative humidity (RH%). DL% varies between 18% and 36% (w/w), showing that the amount of SBA-15 is the most significant factor on DL%. The lowest SBA-15 amount yielded the highest DL%. Regarding DE%, all the design samples exhibit higher values than pure ABZ, with the amount of SBA-15 being the primary influencing factor. Several samples from the BBD show high DE% (>70%) corresponding to high DL% values. After 12 months, most samples maintain similar dissolution profiles, demonstrating the good stability of the drug in the carrier over time. This study provides valuable insights into optimizing the loading process to enhance ABZ solubility and long-term stability using mesoporous SBA-15. Fil: Gallo, Loreana Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia; Argentina Fil: Bonne, Magali. Université de Strasbourg; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia