Studies on the preparation, characterization and pharmacological evaluation of tolterodine PLGA microspheres.

In this study, poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) microspheres of tolterodine depot formulation were prepared using oil in water (o/w) method to investigate their potential pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic advantages over tolterodine l-tartrate tablets. Morphological studies of the microspheres showed a spherical shape and smooth surface with mean size of 50.69-83.01 microm, and the encapsulation efficiency was improved from 62.55 to 79.10% when the polymer concentration increased from 180 to 230 mg/ml. The addition of stearic or palmitic acids could significantly raise the drug entrapment efficiency but only slightly affected the in vitro release. A low initial burst followed by a proximately constant release of tolterodine was noticed in the in vitro release profiles. The in vivo study was carried out by intramuscular (i.m.) administration of tolterodine-loaded microspheres on beagle dogs, and a sustained release of drug from the PLGA microspheres was achieved until the 18th day with a low initial burst. Since the absence of hepatic first pass metabolism, only a single active compound-tolterodine was detected in the plasma. This avoided the coexistence of two active compounds in plasma in the case of oral administration of tolterodine, which may lead to a difficulty in dose control due to the different metabolic capacity of patients. In the pharmacodynamic study, the influence of tolterodine PLGA microspheres on the inhibition of carbachol-induced rat urinary bladder contraction was more significant than that of tolterodine l-tartrate tablets. There were invisible changes in rat bladder slices between tolterodine-loaded PLGA microspheres group and tolterodine l-tartrate tablets group. These results indicate that the continuous inhibition of muscarinic receptor may offer an alternative therapy of urge incontinence. Crown Copyright 2010. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.