Water vapor sorption studies on the physical stability of a series of spray-dried protein/sugar powders for inhalation.

One theory suggests that by maintaining the protein in an amorphous glassy sugar matrix, the physical hindrance encountered by the protein functions to stabilize it. Thus, the nature of the sugar/protein interaction is important as is the maintenance of the sugar in an amorphous form without any recrystallization. Moisture is known to function as a plasticizer and facilitate crystallization and thus loss of the amorphous state. We report the effect of cospray-drying with different proteins on the physical stability of lactose and mannitol. Particle sizing showed their suitability for inhalation, and the effect of exposure of the spray-dried products to moisture vapor was monitored gravimetrically. Bovine liver catalase, bovine pancreatic insulin, and bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A when individually cospray-dried with lactose showed no extensive initial crystallinity by powder X-ray diffraction, but proteins cospray-dried with mannitol generally showed evidence of mannitol component crystallinity. Catalase appeared to inhibit lactose crystallization from an amorphous matrix to a greater extent than insulin when exposed to short-term elevated humidity, but this difference was a kinetic feature. The hygroscopicities of the cospray-dried materials differed and indicated that each protein/sugar system required individual characterization to identify an optimal formulation.