In vivo pharmacokinetic study for the assessment of poly(L-aspartic acid) as a drug carrier for colon-specific drug delivery.

Glucocorticoids remain one of the mainstays of therapy for acute attacks of inflammatory bowel disease despite systemic side effects that limit their use. Prodrugs that selectively deliver glucocorticoids to the colon may lower the required dose and side effects. Because enzymes of gut microflora are able to cleave certain peptide and ester bonds, the ability of an ester prodrug consisting of dexamethasone (DX) as model drug and poly(L-aspartic acid) (weight-average mol wt = 30,000) as drug carrier was investigated to selectively release the drug in the large intestine. Prodrug and drug solutions (1.18 mg DX/ml DMSO) were administered to two groups of male Sprague-Dawley rats by intragastric infusion using an ALZET osmotic pump. All rats were infused for sufficient time to achieve steady state in both blood and GI-tract tissues. DX concentrations in blood and tissue samples were measured with HPLC. The steady state DX concentrations at these sites were used to calculate a drug delivery index (DDI). DX blood concentrations were significantly lower (p < 0.05) after intragastric administration of the prodrug. Moreover, prodrug administration resulted in significantly higher DX concentrations in the cecum and colon mucosa and the cecum muscle tissue compared to DX administration (p < 0.05). The prodrug led to an increase of the DX concentration in the large intestinal tissues by factors of 1.3-2.0 and to an 1.3-fold decrease of DX blood concentrations. Thus, this novel conjugate should both increase efficacy and reduce toxicity to some extent.