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A BREAKTHROUGH IN DESIGNING GASTRORETENTIVE DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS (GRDDS) VIA 3D PRINTING

ABDULSALAM A. ALQAHTANI, ABDUL ALEEM MOHAMMED *, MOHAMMAD ZAKI AHMAD

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The oral delivery of certain drugs, due to their physiological limitations, such as instability at alkaline pH, high solubility in gastric media, short biological half-life and envisioned local gastric action, requires the design of gastroretentive drug delivery systems (GRDDS). GRDDS are intended for prolonged gastric retention that exhibits improved bioavailability and patient compliance. Various conventional approaches have been used to design GRDDS, which include low-density systems, mucoadhesive systems, superporous or expandable systems, high-density systems and so on. There exist certain limitations with these conventionally designed systems, such as interference with the normal physiological functioning of the stomach, delayed floating lag time, rapid gastric emptying, etc. In addition to this, material and manufacturing process complexity leads to a tedious and time-consuming process. Contrary to this, the 3D printing technique, due to its technical advancement and feasibility to design tuned and complex geometries with more precision and accuracy, could be utilized easily and efficiently to design GRDDS. Moreover, the design of customized GRDDS using 3D printing techniques also allows for dose adjustment and control over drug release patterns. Extrusion-based 3D printing techniques, such as pressure-assisted micro-syringes (PAM) and fused deposition modelling (FDM), are the most widely used methods for designing 3D-printed GRDDS among the various 3D printing techniques that have evolved so far. This review emphasizes the recent research in the design of GRDDS via 3D printing techniques, elaborating on the various polymers used for 3D printing, types of extruders and 3D printers employed for designing GRDDS.