Browsing by Author "Okafor, Nnamdi Ikemefuna"

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    Investigation of suitable microencapsulation techniques in the preformulation of selected antiretroviral drugs
    (University of the Western Cape, 2022) Okafor, Nnamdi Ikemefuna; Aucamp, Marique
    Background: The use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVDs) in the treatment of HIV/AIDS have been promising and effective especially amongst adults as it suppresses the viral load, thereby improving the life expectancy of HIV patients. However, the adoption of the treatment amongst children living with HIV have proved to be challenging. This is because of the poor drug adherence or non-compliance resulting from the lack of child-friendly formulations. The dosage forms are typically large tablets which have led to difficulty in swallowing or needs breaking of the tablets to obtain the correct dose and potentially some sort of dosage form manipulation by mixing it with milk or juice. The limited paediatric formulations that are available are mostly unpalatable, despite being formulated in a syrup or liquid, it still presents with a bitter taste. Therefore, all these factors combined have emphasized the need for child friendly dosage forms for children suffering from this debilitating disease.
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    Microencapsulation techniques in HIV pediatric formulations: advances and future outlook
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2024) Okafor, Nnamdi Ikemefuna
    The treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in children has persistently been complex and tedious on a global scale. This is because adult and pediatric HIV treatments follow a similar therapeutic approach. Due to the dearth of clinically licensed pediatric antiretroviral drug (ARVD) therapy, children with HIV worldwide are prescribed unlicensed drugs each year. This has triggered likelihood of poor drug adherence, therapeutic failure, and even adverse reactions brought on by a variety of factors, including pill size and quantity, which is the main cause of swallowing difficulties, repeated administration of these various ARVDs, many of which have poor solubility and cause severe side effects in children, and unpalatability of the drug, which is one of the criteria for pediatric formulations. Thus, there is a necessity for investigation into several advanced microencapsulation techniques that could curb these challenges. Microencapsulation techniques have explored in drug delivery for encapsulation and manufacture of different nanoparticles that have shown significant potential in mitigating and surmounting different constraints, such as taste masking, enhanced drug solubility and bioavailability, and production of micronized fine powders for treatment of varying diseases. Nevertheless, the usage of these technologies in HIV pediatric formulations has garnered relatively little attention.