Representing more than 50% of a worldwide pharmaceutical market of US$ 400 billions, oral drug delivery systems become naturally the focus of many studies. For almost half a century scientists have attempted to develop a theoretical model capable of predicting oral drug absorption in humans. From steady state or quasi-equilibrium models to complex and computationally intractable dynamic modeling approaches, numerous research efforts tried to address the problem of interest. Surprisingly though, no simple insightful first-principle-based dynamic modeling approaches have been reported in the literature. It is the purpose of the present work to provide a simple dynamic distributed-parameter modeling approach for performance monitoring of oral drug delivery systems. As a consequence of the complexity of the gastrointestinal tract, drug oral bioavailability is influenced by many different parameters. These parameters range from the compound's physicochemical properties, the physiological factors of the environment to other factors inherent in the drug form itself known as encapsulation factors. Physicochemical properties account for parameters such as drug stability, solubility or diffusivity. Furthermore, the environment, namely the gastrointestinal tract, influences the drug delivery process to the body with its pH, intestinal transit time and the different transport mechanisms that take place. From a chemical engineering point of view, the human body's anatomy can be analyzed and conceptually realized as a transport-reaction chemical system. Within the proposed modeling framework, the stomach is modeled as a non-ideal continuous-stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and the small intestine is the place where convection-diffusion occurs. The governing transport equations have been solved at steady state conditions in a small intestine represented by the lumen surrounded by its wall. The present work however develops a systematic dynamic first-principle-based distributed-parameter modeling framework where the time-dependent convection-diffusion-reaction model equations are analytically solved, offering the concentration profile in the small intestine lumen and in the wall from the moment the drug is administered until the complete absorption or disintegration of the drug particles. Once the modeling work is performed, a thorough and insightful sensitivity analysis can be conducted in order to assess the impact of the different process parameters on drug bioavailability.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:wpi.edu/oai:digitalcommons.wpi.edu:etd-theses-1613 |
Date | 01 May 2003 |
Creators | Eyries, Pascal |
Contributors | Nikolaos K. Kazantzis, Advisor, , |
Publisher | Digital WPI |
Source Sets | Worcester Polytechnic Institute |
Detected Language | English |
Type | text |
Format | application/pdf |
Source | Masters Theses (All Theses, All Years) |
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