Novel levodopa microparticles for pulmonary delivery and in vivo respiratory tract toxicity study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22456/2527-2616.150700Keywords:
pulmonary, drug delivery, microparticles, lung toxicity, inhaled therapyAbstract
The aim of this study was to develop microparticles containing levodopa and a new combination of polymers for lung delivery and evaluate the pulmonary cytotoxicity in vivo of this novel formulation. Spray-drying technique was used to produce the powders containing levodopa, chitosan, HPMC and hyaluronic acid at different proportions and conditions. In addition, a cytotoxicity assay in rats was performed to evaluate the pulmonary membrane damage. The results showed good drug loading capacity (97.30% ± 0.5) and the obtained microparticles presented appropriate aerodynamic diameter for pulmonary delivery (4.18 ± 0.09 µm). The fine particle fraction found was 25.49 % and the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) study in vivo showed that levodopa microparticles did not cause considerable increment on the activity of marker enzymes in relation to the untreated control group. Therefore, no respiratory tract toxicity was observed with this novel formulation. The results also present an innovative combination of polymers for lung delivery.
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