Formulation and Evaluation of Nanosuspension of Simvastatin

Poor water solubility and slow dissolution rate are issues for the majority of upcoming and existing biologically active compounds. Simvastatin is poorly water-soluble drug and its bioavailability is very low from its crystalline form. The purpose of this study wasto increase the solubility and dissolution rate of simvastatin by the  preparation of nanosuspension by emulsification solvent diffusion method at laboratory scale. Prepared nanosus-pension was evaluated for its particle size and in vitro dissolution study and characterized by zeta potential,differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-Ray diffractometry (XRD), motic digital microscopy, entrapment efficiency, total drug content, saturated solubility study and in vivo study. A 23 factorial design was employed to study the effect of independent variables, amount of SLS (X1), amount of PVPK-30 (X2) and poloxamer-188 (X3) and dependent variables are total drug content and polydispersity Index. The obtained results showed that particle size (nm) and rate of dissolution has been improved when nanosuspension prepared with the higherconcentration of PVPK-30 with the higher concentration of PVP K-30 and Poloxamer-188 and lower concentration of SLS. The particle size and zeta potential of optimized formulation was found to be 258.3 nm and 23.43. The rate of dissolution of the optimized nanosuspension was enhanced (90% in 60min), relative to plain simvastatin  (21% in 60 min), mainly due to the formation of nanosized particles. These results indicate the suitability of 23 factorial  design for preparation of simvastatin loaded nano-suspension significantly improved in vitro dissolution rate and thus possibly enhance fast onset of therapeutic drug effect. In vivo study shows increase in bioavailability in nanosuspension formulation than the plain simvastatin drug.