Biorelevant subcutaneous in vitro test predicts the release of human and fast acting insulin formulations.

The administration of insulins by subcutaneous injection is nowadays widely prevalent. The injection site is located below the dermis and composed of cells and the extracellular matrix formed of a network of macromolecules such as hyaluronic acid and collagen. Following an injection, the insulins from the formulated products are timely released as drug molecules from the injection site into systemic circulation. In this publication, we show the development of an in vitro setup utilizing a hydrogel composed of a special collagen-hyaluronic acid mixture that mimics the extracellular matrix. Another setup was used for differentiation of the commercially available and research insulin formulations by determining the in vitro permeation characteristics with the results that were correlated with the human in vivo data. Significant differentiation was achieved at 90 % confidence level between the permeation curves of insulin glulisine containing formulations (U100 and a concentrated research formulation), while in case of the insulin lispro containing formulations (U100 and U200) the permeation curves showed similarity. These results demonstrated that the in vitro setup may be used as a tool for formulation development and drug candidate profiling as it is able to differentiate or show similarities between the agglomeration states and concentration of the active pharmaceutical ingredients.

IMI - oral biopharmaceutics tools project - evaluation of bottom-up PBPK prediction success part 1: Characterisation of the OrBiTo database of compounds.

Predicting oral bioavailability (Foral) is of importance for estimating systemic exposure of orally administered drugs. Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling and simulation have been applied extensively in biopharmaceutics recently. The Oral Biopharmaceutical Tools (OrBiTo) project (Innovative Medicines Initiative) aims to develop and improve upon biopharmaceutical tools, including PBPK absorption models. A large-scale evaluation of PBPK models may be considered the first step. Here we characterise the OrBiTo active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) database for use in a large-scale simulation study. The OrBiTo database comprised 83 APIs and 1475 study arms. The database displayed a median logP of 3.60 (2.40-4.58), human blood-to-plasma ratio of 0.62 (0.57-0.71), and fraction unbound in plasma of 0.05 (0.01-0.17). The database mainly consisted of basic compounds (48.19%) and Biopharmaceutics Classification System class II compounds (55.81%). Median human intravenous clearance was 16.9L/h (interquartile range: 11.6-43.6L/h; n=23), volume of distribution was 80.8L (54.5-239L; n=23). The majority of oral formulations were immediate release (IR: 87.6%). Human Foral displayed a median of 0.415 (0.203-0.724; n=22) for IR formulations. The OrBiTo database was found to be largely representative of previously published datasets. 43 of the APIs were found to satisfy the minimum inclusion criteria for the simulation exercise, and many of these have significant gaps of other key parameters, which could potentially impact the interpretability of the simulation outcome. However, the OrBiTo simulation exercise represents a unique opportunity to perform a large-scale evaluation of the PBPK approach to predicting oral biopharmaceutics.

Characterization and evaluation of a modified PVPA barrier in comparison to Caco-2 cell monolayers for combined dissolution and permeation testing.

Aim of this study was to implement a modified phospholipid vesicle-based permeation assay (PVPA) barrier as alternative to Caco-2 cell monolayers in a combined dissolution and permeation system for testing of solid dosage forms. Commercially available Transwell® inserts were coated with egg phospholipids (Lipoid E 80) and characterized by confocal Raman microscopy. The modified PVPA barrier was then evaluated in permeation studies with solutions of different drugs as well as in combined dissolution and permeation studies utilizing an immediate and an extended release tablet formulation. Raman cross section images demonstrated complete filling of the membrane pores with lipids and the formation of a continuous lipid layer of increasing thickness on top of the membrane during the stepwise coating procedure. Furthermore, it could be shown that this lipid coating remains intact for at least 18h under dynamic flow conditions, significantly exceeding the viability of Caco-2 cell monolayers. Permeability data for both drug solutions as well as for a fast and slow release tablet formulation were in excellent correlation with those data obtained for Caco-2 cell monolayers. Especially under the dynamic flow conditions prevailing in such a setup, the modified PVPA barrier is more robust and easier to handle than epithelial cell monolayers and can be prepared rather easily at a fraction of costs and time. The modified PVPA barrier may therefore represent a valuable alternative to Caco-2 cell monolayers in such context.

Online monitoring of transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) in an apparatus for combined dissolution and permeation testing.

The aim of this study was to evaluate a newly implemented feature for the online monitoring of transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) in an apparatus for combined in vitro dissolution and permeation testing. In a first step, the course of TEER was analyzed simultaneously to the permeability of sodium fluorescein, and a time frame of cell monolayer integrity inside the apparatus of approximately 3h was found. In successive experiments cell monolayer integrity was challenged by application of EDTA (8, 6, 3 and 2 mM) in the apical compartment. After application of high EDTA concentrations of 8 and 6 mM for 45 min TEER did not recover, and permeability of the monolayer was steadily increasing. For the lower concentrations TEER recovered again while permeability of sodium fluorescein remained at an elevated level. This suggests that the EDTA induced opening of the tight junctions was preserved during the period of TEER recovery and did not change within the lifespan of the cell monolayer inside the apparatus. Online monitoring of TEER appeared to be a suitable method for real-time control of barrier integrity throughout each experiment. Moreover, this feature is intended to be used to analyze formulation approaches aiming for an improved oral drug bioavailability by application of excipients that increase the paracellular permeability of the intestinal epithelial barrier.