Application of acid-treated yeast cell wall (AYC) as a pharmaceutical additive I. AYC as a novel coating material.

Acid-treated yeast cell wall (AYC) was newly prepared by acidifying the cell wall of brewer's yeast and the potential to use AYC as a novel coating material was studied. AYC had an oval shape with the diameter of several microm. The rheogram of AYC aqueous dispersion showed the plastic fluid property that is generally observed in the suspension. Core tablets containing 3% of acetaminophen (AAP) were coated with the AYC aqueous dispersion containing 5% (w/v) of AYC and 0.35% (w/v) of glycerol at various coating percents. The AAP release profile from the AYC-coated tablets was studied by the JP13 paddle method using solutions at various pH. Tensile strength and permeability of oxygen and water vapor of AYC cast film were measured. The AAP release from the AYC-coated tablets showed sigmoidal release profile with an initial lag time and the duration of the lag time depended on the coating percent of AYC. The pH of the dissolution fluid or the storage at room temperature for 120 days had little affect on AAP release from the AYC-coated tablets. These results suggest that it is possible to control the start time of medicine release independent of the pH by coating of AYC, that is the time-controlled release. The AYC cast film showed a large tensile strength and an extremely small oxygen permeability coefficient and a sufficient level of water permeability coefficient in order to protect from moisture. These results present that AYC has the high utility as a novel aqueous coating material for DDS preparations.