Intranasal and Lung Drug Delivery
Absorption and Toxicity Screening
Fast, cost-efficient screening to determine
intranasal and inhaled drug permeability and toxicity.
Nasal drug delivery is an attractive and increasingly popular alternative to
conventional oral drug delivery. The nasal mucosal membrane is moist and highly
vascularized, providing an ideal tissue for rapid drug absorption into the blood stream.
The main disadvantages of intranasal drug delivery are the limited maximum dose
per spray, and the rapid clearance from the nasal cavity. These limitations of
intranasal pharmaceuticals can be addressed early on in the drug discovery process
by screening prospective aerosol drug compounds in an in vitro nasal mucosal model
to identify lead candidates prior to more expensive in vivo intranasal testing.
Apredica's intranasal and lung absorption and toxicity assays are performed using
MatTek's EpiAirway System,
for which Apredica is a MatTek Qualified Lab.
The EpiAirway system consists of normal, human-derived tracheal/bronchial epithelial (NHBE or TBE)
cells which have been cultured to form a pseudo-stratified, highly differentiated
model which closely resembles the epithelial tissue of the respiratory tract. The
EpiAirway model has been shown
to exhibit "a consistent profile of reliability, responding with appropriate sensitivity
to test conditions while retaining the characteristics expected of normal tissue
and yielding reproducible data, which allows for the rapid identification of lead
candidates for pharmaceutical development."1
The assay is normally run at one drug concentration in triplicate at multiple
time points over two hours alongside suitable controls. The Papp is then calculated.
The toxicity of the drug can also be monitored. This assay is well suited for testing
different intranasal drug formulations, and can also be performed on cells procured
from asthmatic patients. Bidirectional intranasal permeability can be tested for,
as well as whether P-glycoprotein is present in these tissues.
Contact us to learn more about Apredica's intranasal
and lung drug delivery ADME Tox testing services.
1. Evaluation of the Penetration and Cytotoxic Effects of Drug Formulations
on an In Vitro Nasal Mucousal Model. J. M. Easow, E. Scotto-Lavino, E. J. Roemer,
and S. R. Simon, Department of Pathology, SUNY Stonybrook
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