Dissolution of amorphous nifedipine from micelle-forming carboxymethylcellulose derivatives

[Display omitted] •Oxidized CMC-g-PEG-DDA copolymer micelles efficiently incorporated nifedipine, a model hydrophobic drug.•Micellization suppressed nifedipine crystallinity, enhancing its dissolution.•Swollen micelle core enabled a high and progressive drug release in acidic conditions.•Photostabilization of the drug as an effect of the micelle-based incorporation was validated. We show that a novel amphiphilic graft copolymer combining the biodegradability and biocompatibility of oxidized carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) with that of hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), and hydrophobic dodecylamine (DDA), improves the solubility and dissolution performance of nifedipine (NIF), considered as a model hydrophobic drug. The hydrophobic components of the graft copolymer have the multiple effect of favouring micelle formation and loading. At the same time, the interaction between the hydrophobic core and NIF has the secondary effect to suppress drug crystallization, favouring its dissolution, and to increase photostability. Oxidized CMC-g-PEG-DDA micelles reached values of drug concentration, loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency as high as 340 μg mL−1, 6.4 % and 34.1 %, respectively. Loaded micelles showed a good stability with a limited release profile at pH 1.2, whereas at pH 7.4 the swollen cores enable much higher and progressive release, that reaches 3.4 and 6.6 % after 3 and 5 h, respectively, corresponding to very competitive concentration of 34 and 66 μg mL−1.