Preparation and characterization of cyclodextrin complexes of doxycycline hyclate for improved photostability in aqueous solution

Doxycycline hyclate is Biopharmaceutical Classification System, class I drug (high solubility and high permeability), but it is associated with poor photostability. It is in the class of tetracycline antibiotic, which is used to treat various infections, but its bioavailability is compromised due to its sensitivity to light and aqueous instability. In this paper, the influence of inclusion complexation with different cyclodextrins, i.e., αCD, γCD, HPβCD and RMβCD, on the photostability of doxycycline hyclate in aqueous media was investigated. Host–guest inclusion complexes were prepared by freeze- drying method. The prepared complexes were characterized for drug content, SEM, XRPD, in vitro permeation studies and photostability studies. XRPD showed diffused peaks for most of the complexes, while SEM showed irregularly shaped particles. The formulation D20 (Drug: γCD in 1:20 molar ratio) showed the highest % drug content (83.72 ± 1.2%), and the formulations D1 (Drug: αCD in 1: 2 molar ratio) showed the lowest % drug content among all the CD complexes. It was found that the photodegradation of the drug was reduced significantly upon complexation. For Drug: CD complexes, the photostability of the aqueous solution of drug/CD complexes was found to be in the order of γCD > RMβCD > HPβCD > αCD with maximum photostability shown by Drug: γCD (1:20 molar ratio) complex. The obtained results suggested that cyclodextrin complexation can be used as an alternative approach for increasing the photostability of doxycycline hyclate.