THE ROLE OF PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION ON BIOAVAILABILITY OF CYCLOSPORINE: NOVEL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

EXCIPIENTS AND THEIR ROLE IN ABSORPTION: INFLUENCING BIOAVAILABILITY OF CYCLOSPORINE BY TRIGLYCERIDES AND POLYGLYCEROL ESTERS

AIMS

The goal of the experiment was to verify bioavailability of immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine after oral administration, to determine, in particular, effect of triglycerides and polyglycerol esters on bioavailability of this lipophilic, poorly soluble drug.

METHODS

1) Absorption of cyclosporine A from soya oil and polyglycerol-3-oleate was tested after intra-duodenal application to rats. This method enable to administer dispersion directly to the site of absorption and avoid problems with potential precipitation of active substances in the stomach. Samples were pre-dispersed in water and diluted on concentration 1mg/ml prior administration. In defined time intervals a blood sample was taken in a volume of 0.5 ml from the cannuled carotid. Blood was sampled in time 5, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 180 and 240 minutes after application. For the comparison, Equoral oral solution diluted and pre-dispersed in the same manner was used. 2) 100 mg of cyclosporin in form of 1% dispersion in water was administered orally to dogs under fasting condition. The blood level of cyclosporine was evaluated from samples taken in time 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 5, 8, 12 and 24 hours following application. Formulations containing different ratio of polyglycerol esters / olive oil were compared.

RESULTS

The experiments conducted indicate that cyclosporine is 19x more available from polyglycerol-3-oleate than from soya oil. When applying cyclosporine in polyglycerol-3-oleate the average maximum blood level is 10x higher then in application of cyclosporine in oil. If polyglycerols are fully substituted with plant oils in the formula observed, its pharmacokinetic parameters decrease to 1/10 of the initial values.

CONCLUSIONS

The right selection of a type of excipient accompanying cyclosporine affects significantly cyclosporine availability and thus its efficiency.

Novel gels and their dispersions--oral drug delivery systems for ciclosporin

Amphiphilogels (gels that consist solely of surfactants) and gel-based emulsion (GEM) formulations (solutions that gel upon incorporation of small amounts of water) were investigated as oral delivery vehicles for ciclosporin A, in in vivo experiments in Beagle dogs. Both systems represent essentially self-dispersing non-lipidic drug delivery systems based on amphiphilic surfactants. Three different amphiphilogels (hydrophobic, hydrophilic and hydrophilic gel containing ethanol), the aqueous dispersions of the latter two amphiphilogels and of two GEM formulations were tested to determine the influence of (i) gel hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity, (ii) presence of ethanol, (iii) pre-dispersion of gels into aqueous medium prior to oral administration and (iv) size of dispersions, on drug absorption. It was found that all the formulations tested, except for the hydrophilic amphiphilogel and its aqueous dispersion, were bioequivalent to Neoral, the commercially available preparation. High drug absorption from the bioequivalent formulations was thought to be due to the fact that following oral administration, ciclosporin remained in a soluble form, hence was available for absorption, despite relatively large droplet sizes of the formulations. The hydrophilic gel and its dispersion allowed less drug absorption; this was assigned to the fact that, when the hydrophilic amphiphilogel contacted an aqueous medium, there were no lipophilic domains in which the drug could remain soluble. It is possible that some drug precipitated out and was unavailable for absorption.