Inkjet Printing of Pharmaceuticals

Bespoke hydroxypropyl methylcellulose-based solid foams loaded with poorly soluble drugs by tunable modular design

A tunable modular design (TMD) as a new approach was proposed to tailor the dose and drug release profile of poorly water-soluble drugs from hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC)-based solid foams by combining two manufacturing principles: (1) freeze-drying aqueous HPMC-based gels to yield porous sturdy modules with specific doses of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) with the step size of 3 mg, and (2) fine-tuning the desired dose of the API with the step size of 0.1 mg by inkjet printing of the API-loaded ink onto the modules. Carvedilol (CAR) was used as a model poorly water-soluble API that requires frequent dose adjustment. The limitation of poor CAR solubility was overcome by designing pharmaceutically approved co-solvent systems. This approach ensured printable inks of a high drug content, and sturdy and flexible modules with uniform distribution of CAR to achieve effective and accurate doses of CAR. The tailored release rate of CAR from TMD products was succeeded by varying the composition, particularly, the content and grade of HPMC, and physical dimensions of modules. The TMD approach holds potential for designing bespoke high-quality products, containing hydrophilic cellulose ethers such as HPMC and poorly water-soluble APIs.

Attentive ink MLP droplet detection algorithm based on the satellite droplets threshold domain

Satellite droplet are trailing droplets caused by improper voltage waveform control in the nozzles, which directly affect the quality of inkjet printing. Traditional empirical tuning methods struggle to effectively control and predict satellite droplet. In response, this paper establishes a simulation model of a ring-shaped piezoelectric ceramic device. establishes a simulation model of a ring-shaped piezoelectric ceramic nozzle through numerical analysis, collecting droplet behavior parameters for 13,650 different waveforms. It was found that the relative differential of the negative pressure peak at the nozzle is the primary cause of satellite droplet formation. Furthermore, the critical values of various behavior parameters leading to satellite droplet formation were investigated, resulting in the construction of a "Satellite droplet formation". resulting in the construction of a "Satellite droplet threshold domain." Based on this domain, an attention-based MLP algorithm, the Attentive Ink MLP Based on this domain, an attention-based MLP algorithm, the Attentive Ink MLP, was proposed to automatically predict whether a waveform will generate satellite droplet. algorithm reduces prediction time from 40 min to 5 min, with a validation accuracy of 0.988. The numerical analysis and algorithm were further validated through experiments with a droplet. The numerical analysis and algorithm were further validated through experiments with a droplet observation system.

The Future of Medicine: How 3D Printing Is Transforming Pharmaceuticals

Three-dimensional printing technology is transforming pharmaceutical manufacturing by shifting from conventional mass production to additive manufacturing, with a strong emphasis on personalized medicine. The integration of bioinks and AI-driven optimization is further enhancing this innovation, enabling drug production with precise dosages, tailored drug-release profiles, and unique multi-drug combinations that respond to individual patient needs. This advancement is significantly impacting healthcare by accelerating drug development, encouraging innovative pharmaceutical designs, and enhancing treatment efficacy. Traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing follows a one-size-fits-all approach, which often fails to meet the specific requirements of patients with unique medical conditions. In contrast, 3D printing, coupled with bioink formulations, allows for on-demand drug production, reducing dependency on large-scale manufacturing and storage. AI-powered design and process optimization further refine dosage forms, printability, and drug release mechanisms, ensuring precision and efficiency in drug manufacturing. These advancements have the potential to lower overall healthcare costs while improving patient adherence to medication regimens. This review explores the potential, challenges, and environmental benefits of 3D pharmaceutical printing, positioning it as a key driver of next-generation personalized medicine.

Investigation of aerosol jet printing for the preparation of solid dosage forms

Oral drug delivery remains the preferred method of drug administration but due to poor solubility many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are ill suited to this. A number of methods to improve solubility of poorly soluble Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS) Class II drugs already exist but there is a lack of scalable, flexible methods. As such the current study applies the innovative technique of aerosol jet printing to increase the dissolution capabilities of a Class II drug in a manner which permits flexibility to allow dosage form tailoring. Aerosol jet printing provided a high degree of control allowing effective scaling, by size and layering, and control over drug distribution. Aerosol jet printing of pure active pharmaceutical ingredient (fenofibrate) resulted in crystalline material but as polymer excipient content was increased, morphological changes occurred and a fully amorphous product was generated on inclusion of 75 % (w/w solute) polymer content or above. This amorphous product has been found to exhibit a 10-fold increase in drug dissolution relative to comparable physical mixtures. In conclusion, aerosol jet printing is a novel and effective, scalable method providing improved dissolution coupled with high spatial precision and warrants further investigation.

The Multifaceted Role of 3D Printed Conducting Polymers in Next-Generation Energy Devices: A Critical Perspective

The increasing human population is leading to growing consumption of energy sources which requires development in energy devices. The modern iterations of these devices fail to offer sustainable and environmentally friendly answers since they require costly equipment and produce a lot of waste. Three-dimensional (3D) printing has spurred incredible innovation over the years in a variety of fields and is clearly an attractive option because technology can create unique geometric items quickly, cheaply, and with little waste. Conducting polymers (CPs) are a significant family of functional materials that have garnered interest in the research community because of their high conductivity, outstanding sustainability, and economic significance. They have an extensive number of applications involving supercapacitors, power sources, electrochromic gadgets, electrostatic components, conducting pastes, sensors, and biological devices thanks to their special physical and electrical attributes, ease of synthesis, and appropriate frameworks for functional attachment. The use of three-dimensional printing has become popular as an exact way to enhance prepared networks. Rapid technological advancements are reproducing patterns and building structures that enable automated deposition of polymers for intricate structures. Different composites have been created using oxides of metals and carbon to improve the efficiency of the CPs. Such composites have been actively investigated as exceptional energy producers for low-power electronic techniques, and by increasing the range of applications, they have verified increasing surface area, electronic conductivity, and remarkable electrochemical behavior. The hybridization with such materials has produced a range of equipment, such as gathering energy, sensors, protective gadgets, and storage facilities. A few possible uses for these CPs such as sensors and energy storage devices are discussed in this perspective. We also provide an overview of the key strategies for scientific and industrial applications with an eye on potential improvements for a sustainable future.

Engineered Living Systems Based on Gelatin: Design, Manufacturing, and Applications

Engineered living systems (ELSs) represent purpose-driven assemblies of living components, encompassing cells, biomaterials, and active agents, intricately designed to fulfill diverse biomedical applications. Gelatin and its derivatives have been used extensively in ELSs owing to their mature translational pathways, favorable biological properties, and adjustable physicochemical characteristics. This review explores the intersection of gelatin and its derivatives with fabrication techniques, offering a comprehensive examination of their synergistic potential in creating ELSs for various applications in biomedicine. It offers a deep dive into gelatin, including its structures and production, sources, processing, and properties. Additionally, the review explores various fabrication techniques employing gelatin and its derivatives, including generic fabrication techniques, microfluidics, and various 3D printing methods. Furthermore, it discusses the applications of ELSs based on gelatin in regenerative engineering as well as in cell therapies, bioadhesives, biorobots, and biosensors. Future directions and challenges in gelatin fabrication are also examined, highlighting emerging trends and potential areas for improvements and innovations. In summary, this comprehensive review underscores the significance of gelatin-based ELSs in advancing biomedical engineering and lays the groundwork for guiding future research and developments within the field.

Droplet-based 3D bioprinting for drug delivery and screening

Recently, the conventional criterion of "one-size-fits-all" is not qualified for each individual patient, requiring precision medicine for enhanced therapeutic effects. Besides, drug screening is a high-cost and time-consuming process which requires innovative approaches to facilitate drug development rate. Benefiting from consistent technical advances in 3D bioprinting techniques, droplet-based 3D bioprinting techniques have been broadly utilized in pharmaceutics due to the noncontact printing mechanism and precise control on the deposition position of droplets. More specifically, cell-free/cell-laden bioinks which are deposited for the fabrication of drug carriers/3D tissue constructs have been broadly utilized for precise drug delivery and high throughput drug screening, respectively. This review summarizes the mechanism of various droplet-based 3D bioprinting techniques and the most up-to-date applications in drug delivery and screening and discusses the potential improvements of droplet-based 3D bioprinting techniques from both technical and material aspects. Through technical innovations, materials development, and the assistance from artificial intelligence, the formation process of drug carriers will be more stable and accurately controlled guaranteeing precise drug delivery. Meanwhile, the shape fidelity and uniformity of the printed tissue models will be significantly improved ensuring drug screening efficiency and efficacy.

Trends in Photopolymerization 3D Printing for Advanced Drug Delivery Applications

Since its invention in the 1980s, photopolymerization-based 3D printing has attracted significant attention for its capability to fabricate complex microstructures with high precision, by leveraging light patterning to initiate polymerization and cross-linking in liquid resin materials. Such precision makes it particularly suitable for biomedical applications, in particular, advanced and customized drug delivery systems. This review summarizes the latest advancements in photopolymerization 3D printing technology and the development of biocompatible and/or biodegradable materials that have been used or shown potential in the field of drug delivery. The drug loading methods and release characteristics of the 3D printing drug delivery systems are summarized. Importantly, recent trends in the drug delivery applications based on photopolymerization 3D printing, including oral formulations, microneedles, implantable devices, microrobots and recently emerging systems, are analyzed. In the end, the challenges and opportunities in photopolymerization 3D printing for customized drug delivery are discussed.

Chaotic (bio)printing in the context of drug delivery systems

Chaotic (bio)printing, an innovative fabrication technique that uses chaotic flows to create highly ordered microstructures within materials, may be transformative for drug delivery systems. This review explores the principles underlying chaotic flows and their application in fabricating complex, multi-material constructs designed for advanced drug delivery and controlled release. Chaotic printing enables the precise layering of different active ingredients-a feature that may greatly facilitate the development of polypills with customizable release profiles. Recently, chaos-assisted fabrication has been extended to produce micro-architected hydrogel spheres in a high-throughput manner, potentially enhancing the versatility and efficiency of drug delivery methods. In addition, chaotic bioprinting enables the creation of evolved tissue models that more accurately emulate physiological systems, providing a more relevant platform for drug testing. This review also highlights the unique advantages of chaotic printing, including the ability to fabricate tissues with organized porosity and pre-vascularized structures, addressing critical challenges in tissue engineering. Despite its promising capabilities, challenges remain, particularly in expanding the range of materials compatible with chaotic printing. Continued research and development in this area are essential to fully realize the potential of chaotic (bio)printing in advancing drug delivery, paving the way for the next generation of smart drug delivery systems and functional tissue models for drug testing.

Smart laser Sintering: Deep Learning-Powered powder bed fusion 3D printing in precision medicine

Medicines remain ineffective for over 50% of patients due to conventional mass production methods with fixed drug dosages. Three-dimensional (3D) printing, specifically selective laser sintering (SLS), offers a potential solution to this challenge, allowing the manufacturing of small, personalized batches of medication. Despite its simplicity and suitability for upscaling to large-scale production, SLS was not designed for pharmaceutical manufacturing and necessitates a time-consuming, trial-and-error adaptation process. In response, this study introduces a deep learning model trained on a variety of features to identify the best feature set to represent drugs and polymeric materials for the prediction of the printability of drug-loaded formulations using SLS. The proposed model demonstrates success by achieving 90% accuracy in predicting printability. Furthermore, explainability analysis unveils materials that facilitate SLS printability, offering invaluable insights for scientists to optimize SLS formulations, which can be expanded to other disciplines. This represents the first study in the field to develop an interpretable, uncertainty-optimized deep learning model for predicting the printability of drug-loaded formulations. This paves the way for accelerating formulation development, propelling us into a future of personalized medicine with unprecedented manufacturing precision.

Altering Mechanical and Dissolution Properties of Coffee Deposit by Adding Glucose

Glucose modifies the mechanical stability of coffee films and facilitates their dissolution dynamics at the microscale, rendering glucose-coffee a valuable natural biomaterial system for studying pharmaceutical applications. We show the glucose-dependent inhibition of crack propagation during the evaporation of glucose-coffee droplets. The addition of glucose increases the hardness, stiffness, and shear modulus of films, as measured by surface nanomechanical testing. The glucose-coffee film dissolves faster and more evenly than the pure coffee film through interfaces. The water penetrates through well-dissolved glucose channels. The modified mechanical properties and adjustable dissolution time, coupled with edibility, position the glucose-modified coffee as an excellent candidate for developing pharmaceutical inks for personalized medicine droplet-based printing.

Tailor-Made Doses of Pharmaceuticals by Tunable Modular Design: A Case Study on Tapering Antidepressant Medication

An abrupt cessation of antidepressant medication can be challenging due to the appearance of withdrawal symptoms. A slow hyperbolic tapering of an antidepressant, such as citalopram hydrobromide (CHB), can mitigate the withdrawal syndrome. However, there are no viable dosage forms on the market to implement the tapering scheme. A solution using a tunable modular design (TMD) approach to produce flexible and accurate doses of CHB is proposed. This design consists of two parts: 1) a module with a fixed amount of preloaded CHB in a freeze-dried polymer matrix, and 2) fine-tuning the CHB dose by inkjet printing. A noncontact food-grade printer, used for the first time for printing pharmaceuticals, is modified to allow for accurate printing of the highly concentrated CHB ink on the porous CHB-free or CHB-preloaded modules. The produced modules with submilligram precision are bench-marked with commercially available CHB tablets that are manually divided. The TMD covers the entire range of doses needed for the tapering (0.5-23.8 mg). The greatest variance is 13% and 88% when comparing the TMD and self-tapering, respectively. Self-tapering is proven inaccurate and showcases the need for the TMD to make available accurate and personalized doses to wean off treatment with CHB.

3D Printing of Dietary Products for the Management of Inborn Errors of Intermediary Metabolism in Pediatric Populations

The incidence of Inborn Error of Intermediary Metabolism (IEiM) diseases may be low, yet collectively, they impact approximately 6-10% of the global population, primarily affecting children. Precise treatment doses and strict adherence to prescribed diet and pharmacological treatment regimens are imperative to avert metabolic disturbances in patients. However, the existing dietary and pharmacological products suffer from poor palatability, posing challenges to patient adherence. Furthermore, frequent dose adjustments contingent on age and drug blood levels further complicate treatment. Semi-solid extrusion (SSE) 3D printing technology is currently under assessment as a pioneering method for crafting customized chewable dosage forms, surmounting the primary limitations prevalent in present therapies. This method offers a spectrum of advantages, including the flexibility to tailor patient-specific doses, excipients, and organoleptic properties. These elements are pivotal in ensuring the treatment's efficacy, safety, and adherence. This comprehensive review presents the current landscape of available dietary products, diagnostic methods, therapeutic monitoring, and the latest advancements in SSE technology. It highlights the rationale underpinning their adoption while addressing regulatory aspects imperative for their seamless integration into clinical practice.