Background: Piroxicam, a widely used NSAID, suffers from poor aqueous solubility, limited bioavailability and adverse gastrointestinal effects. Hybrid drug delivery systems combining organic carriers, metal complexes and supramolecular assemblies offer a promising strategy to overcome these limitations. Objectives: To design and characterize a multifunctional hybrid drug delivery system integrating cobalt-substituted meso-tetra (4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP-Co), ?-cyclodextrin and piroxicam, with the goal of enhancing solubility, structural reorganization and controlled release. Methods: The hybrid system was synthesized in ethanol and characterized using UV-Vis, FTIR, ¹H NMR, XRD and SEM. In-vitro release studies were performed in simulated gastric fluid and phosphate buffer, with kinetic modeling applied using Korsmeyer–Peppas, Higuchi and zero-order, first-order and Hixson–Crowell equations. Results: Spectroscopic analyses confirmed supramolecular interactions through bathochromic shifts, broadened O–H and C=O vibrations and altered proton environments. XRD revealed amorphization, while SEM showed porous, fused morphologies. Drug release kinetics yielded a release exponent n?0.66, indicating anomalous transport governed by both diffusion and matrix relaxation. The Hixson–Crowell model (R² = 0.993) supported surface erosion, while other models confirmed hybrid release behavior. Conclusion: The TCPP-Co/?-cyclodextrin/piroxicam hybrid system demonstrates enhanced solubility, disrupted crystallinity and controlled release dynamics. This supramolecular assembly validates the potential of metalloporphyrin–cyclodextrin hybrids as advanced NSAID delivery platforms with improved therapeutic performance.
Khaliq et al. (Sat,) studied this question.