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3D printing technology is revolutionizing pharmaceuticals, offering tailored solutions for solid dosage forms. This innovation is particularly significant for conditions like Chagas disease, which require weight-dependent treatments. In this work, a formulation of benznidazole (BNZ), the primary treatment for this infection, was developed to be utilized with the Melting Solidification Printing Process (MESO-PP) 3D printing technique. Considering the limited aqueous solubility of BNZ, an interpolyelectrolyte complex (IPEC), composed of chitosan and pectin, was integrated to improve its dissolution profile. The formulations, also called inks in this context, with and without IPEC were integrally characterized and compared. The printing process was studied, the release of BNZ from 3D-prints (3DP) was exhaustively analyzed and a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model (PKPB) was developed to forecast their pharmacokinetic performance. 3DP were successfully achieved loading 25, 50 and 100 mg of BNZ. The presence of the IPEC in the ink caused a decrease in the crystalline domain of BNZ and facilitated the printing process, reaching a print success rate of 83.3 %. Interestingly, 3DP-IPEC showed accelerated release dissolution profiles, releasing over 85 % of BNZ in 90 min, while 3DP took up to 48 h for doses above 25 mg. The PBPK model demonstrated that 3DP-IPEC tablets would present high bioavailability (0.92), higher than 3DP (0.36) and similar to the commercial product. This breakthrough holds immense potential for improving treatment outcomes for neglected diseases., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Benznidazole (BNZ) serves as the primary drug for treating Chagas Disease and is listed in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children. Herein, a new child-friendly oral BNZ delivery platform is developed in the form of supramolecular eutectogels (EGs). EGs address BNZ's poor oral bioavailability and provide a flexible twice-daily dose in stick-pack format. This green and sustainable formulation strategy relies on the gelation of drug-loaded Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NaDES) with xanthan gum (XG) and water. Specifically, choline chloride-based NaDES form stable and biocompatible 5 mg/mL BNZ-loaded EGs. Rheological and Low-field NMR investigations indicate that EGs are viscoelastic materials comprised of two co-existing regions in the XG network generated by different crosslink distributions between the biopolymer, NaDES and water. Remarkably, the shear modulus and relaxation spectrum of EGs remain unaffected by temperature variations. Upon dilution with simulated gastrointestinal fluids, EGs results in BNZ supersaturation, serving as the primary driving force for its absorption. Interestingly, after oral administration of EGs to rats, drug bioavailability increases by 2.6-fold, with a similar increase detected in their cerebrospinal fluid. The noteworthy correlation between in vivo results and in vitro release profiles confirms the efficacy of EGs in enhancing both peripheral and central BNZ oral bioavailability., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: [Giorgia Nucci reports financial support was provided by Fondazione Famiglia Parmiani, Bologna. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.]., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Unlabelled: Pentamidine is an effective antiparasitic agent and approved drug for the treatment of African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). However, pentamidine suffers from poor orally bioavailability and lacks central nervous system (CNS) delivery. Therefore its applicability is limited to intravenous or intramuscular treatment of the first stage of the African trypanosomiasis. For this reason, several new pentamidine pro-drugs have been developed with the aim of providing improved orally availability and CNS penetration., Aim: this work aims to measure and to compare the distribution, bioavailability, and ability to cross the blood-brain barrier of [(123)I]-labeled pentamidine and its pro-drugs, N,N'-dihydroxypentamidine and N,N'‑bis(succinyloxy) pentamidine, using SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) after intravenously and per orally administration in rats., Methods: a total of 60 male Sprague Dawley rats were examined. Each [(123)I]-labeled substance (n=3) was applied to 12 rats (n=6 i.v. and n=6 orally). In two additional test series both [(123)I]iodopentamidine (n=6) and N,N'-bis(succinyloxy)-[(123)I]iodopentamidine (n=6) were administered orally together with the non-radioactive homologues. To evaluate the in vivo stability of the labeled compounds, [(123)I]NaI solution was administered intravenously (n=6) and orally (n=6). In vivo SPECT images were acquired after 30 min, 4h, and 24h and blood samples were taken over 24h. The SPECT images were fusioned with previously acquired magnetic resonance images. After the last SPECT the rats were perfused, sacrificed and the organ γ-radiation levels were determined with a γ-counter. Analysis and quantification of the reconstructed SPECT images was performed using the region of interest technique., Results and Conclusion: the data showed a highly improved oral bioavailability of the [(123)I]-labeled pro-drugs compared to [(123)I]-labeled pentamidine. While [(123)I]iodopentamidine was mainly renally eliminated the pro-drugs were primarily metabolized in the liver and underwent biliary elimination. Considering pentamidine's nephrotoxicity this feature has to be seen as an advantage of the pro-drug principle. Moreover, a significantly higher concentration in the brain was detected after intravenous injection of N,N'-dihydroxy[(123)I]iodopentamidine compared to [(123)I]iodopentamidine. The feasibility of an effective treatment of second stage African trypanosomiasis, in which the parasites already infected the brain, with the herein investigated pro-drugs remains to be clarified with infected animals in additional in vivo studies., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Benznidazole (BZL) is one of the two therapeutic agents used for the treatment of Chagas' disease. However, the use of BZL in most pharmaceutical preparations and research experiments is still limited due to its low water solubility (0.4mg/mL). To overcome the dissolution rate-limiting step in oral absorption, chitosan microparticles prepared by the coacervation method were chosen, owing to non-toxicity of the polymer and mild conditions of the method. The influence of process parameters such as encapsulation efficiency, size, yield, and dissolution rate was optimized by using artificial neural networks (ANNs). The optimal conditions were found to be 1.5% (w/v) for the polymer concentration, 6.0% (w/v) for the coacervation agent concentration, 1400.0rpm for the stirring rate, and 5.0mL/min for the spraying rate. Confirmation experiments showed good agreement between predicted and experimental values of the optimized properties. These results indicate that ANNs is a valuable tool for the development of optimized BZL chitosan microparticles. To our knowledge it is the first report based on the development of optimized BZL microparticles.

With the aim of investigating if delivery of benznidazole (BNZ) to liver could be increased by incorporating the drug in multilamellar liposomes, single bolus of free BNZ or liposomal BNZ formulations (MLV-BNZ) composed of HSPC:DSPG:Chol 2:1:2 (mol/mol/mol) at 0.7% (w/w) drug/total lipid ratio, were injected by intramuscular (i.m.), subcutaneous (s.c.) and intravenous (i.v.) routes, at 0.2 mg BNZ/kg, in rats. The resulting blood concentrations were followed along 9 h post-injection (p.i.) and drug accumulation in liver was determined after 4 and 9 h p.i. Only upon i.v. injection of MLV-BNZ, a threefold higher BNZ accumulation in liver was obtained, together with blood BNZ concentrations of 1.1 microg/ml (30% lower than the blood BNZ concentration achieved upon i.v. administration of free drug) occurred 4 h p.i. However, such increased liver uptake of BNZ, raised twice a week had no effect on parasitaemia levels of mice infected with the RA strain of Trypanosoma cruzi. Our results indicate that the relationship between increased selectivity for an infected tissue and therapeutic effect is not always straightforward, at least for the MLV-BNZ regimen used in the present study.