Oral bioavailability of cyclosporine: Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN®) versus drug nanocrystals

For the development of an optimized oral formulation for cyclosporine A, 2% of this drug has been formulated in solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN™, mean size 157 nm) and as nanocrystals (mean size 962 nm). The encapsulation rate of SLN was found to be 96.1%. Nanocrystals are composed of 100% of drug. For the assessment of the pharmacokinetic parameters the developed formulations have been administered via oral route to three young pigs. Comparison studies with a commercial Sandimmun Neoral/Optoral® used as reference have been performed. The blood profiles observed after oral administration of the commercial microemulsion Sandimmun® revealed a fast absorption of drug leading to the observation of a plasma peak above 1000 ng/ml within the first 2 h. For drug nanocrystals most of the blood concentrations were in the range between 30 and 70 ng/ml over a period of 14 h. These values were very low, showing huge differences between the measuring time points and between the tested animals. On the contrary, administration of cyclosporine-loaded SLN led to a mean plasma profile with almost similarly low variations in comparison to the reference microemulsion, however with no initial blood peak as observed with the Sandimmun Neoral/Optoral®. Comparing the area under the curves (AUC) obtained with the tested animals it could be stated that the SLN™ formulation avoids side effects by lacking blood concentrations higher than 1000 ng/ml. In this study it has been proved that using SLN™ as a drug carrier for oral administration of cyclosporine A a low variation in bioavailability of the drug and simultaneously avoiding the plasma peak typical of the first Sandimmun® formulation can be achieved.