Comparative study of β-cyclodextrin and carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin as effective drug delivery systems for oxymetholone: Design, preparation, characterization, phase solubility and in vitro drug release studies

Cyclodextrins (CDs) are well-known agents in drug delivery systems as they can improve the physical properties of drugs with their distinctive features. Oxymetholone (OXYM) is a derivative of testosterone, a steroid drug that is widely used in the treatment of various diseases. In the current research, the inclusion complexes of OXYM with carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin (CM-β-CD/OXYM) and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD/OXYM) have been successfully prepared to improve stability, solubility, and biopharmaceutical profile of OXYM. The characterization of the prepared inclusion complexes was carried out using FT-IR, XRD, TGA, DLS, BET, and UV-Vis techniques. In addition, the morphology of the synthesized inclusion complexes was evaluated regarding their FE-SEM images. The encapsulation efficiency (EE%), phase solubility, and in vitro drug release of the products were also evaluated using a simple spectrophotometric method, as well. In addition, the kinetic study of in vitro drug release was conducted using the appropriate mathematical equations. In view of the findings of this study, a higher solubility was observed for CM-β-CD/OXYM compared to β-CD/OXYM, nearly three times higher. Furthermore, the in vitro drug release study indicated that β-CD/OXYM offers higher release rates, and the kinetic study demonstrated that both carriers follow a non-Fickian mechanism.