All4Nutra
Abstract
The recent clinical emergence of 3D printing in pharmaceutical development has opened the possibility for a shift away from standardised medication dosing and towards more precise and personalised medicines and treatments. Prednisone is a commonly utilised steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that often requires complex combinations of tablets to achieve dosage regimens and titration, which can lead to poor adherence and adverse effects.
Highlights
- Selective laser sintering can 3D print custom dose prednisone tablets for titration regimens.
- Different doses are printed without changing formulation simply by altering 3D model volume.
- 3D printed tablets have excellent dose accuracy that meet British Pharmacopoeia standards.
- 3D printed tablets matched the drug release profile of commercial prednisone tablets.
This study utilised selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printing to produce custom prednisone tablets of various clinically relevant doses with high accuracy. Incorporating 3D models of different sizes, five doses of prednisone tablet were successfully printed ranging between 5 and 25 mg. Across the five distinct dosage groups, the SLS printed prednisone met conventional tablet manufacturing and British Pharmacopoeial quality standard criteria.
When compared to commercially available prednisone tablets, the SLS printed tablets demonstrated a similar immediate release profile with complete drug release within 25 min. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the capability of SLS 3D printing to produce custom therapeutic doses of clinically relevant medications, showing the viability of translation to clinical practice for the provision of personalised medications.
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Materials and Methods
Kollidon® VA64 was obtained from BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany). Spray dried lactose monohydrate (molecular weight (MW) 360.31 g/mol) was purchased from PCCA (Matraville, Australia). Prednisone (MW 358.43 g/mol), hydrochloric acid 32 %, and trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Bayswater, Australia). Food-grade good manufacturing practice certified orange amber metallic pigment was purchased from Gold Leaf Factory International (Melbourne, Australia). HPLC-grade acetonitrile was purchased from Fisher Scientific. Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.4) was prepared with analytical grade salts including disodium hydrogen orthophosphate (MW 141.96 g/mol, 10 mM), potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate (MW 136.09 g/mol, 1.8 mM), potassium chloride (MW 74.55 g/mol, 2.7 mM) and sodium chloride (MW 58.44 g/mol, 137 mM), and sodium hydroxide (MW 40.00 g/mol, 1 M) all obtained from ChemSupply (Gillman, Australia). Commercial prednisone tablets of 1 mg, 5 mg, and 25 mg doses were used as a comparator (Panafcort, Aspen Pharmacare Australia Pty Ltd). Unless otherwise specified, all assays were performed at a room temperature of 23 °C and used type II pure water.
Zheng Zheng, Liam Krueger, Angus C.F. Harrop, Benjamin P. Ross, Amirali Popat, Jared A. Miles, 3D printed tablets for personalised dose titration of prednisone using selective laser sintering, International Journal of Pharmaceutics,
2025, 125698, ISSN 0378-5173, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.125698.
Read also our introduction article on 3D Printing here:
