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Evaluation of Vaginal Drug Levels and Safety of a Locally Administered Glycerol Monolaurate Cream in Rhesus Macaques
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Evaluation of Vaginal Drug Levels and Safety of a Locally Administered Glycerol Monolaurate Cream in Rhesus Macaques

Ameya R Kirtane, Meghan K Rothenberger, Abby Frieberg, Karla Nephew, Nancy Schultz-Darken, Thomas Schmidt, Thomas Reimann, Ashley T Haase and Jayanth Panyam
Journal of pharmaceutical sciences, Vol.106(7), pp.1821-1827
07/2017
DOI: 10.1016/j.xphs.2017.03.030
PMCID: PMC5511513
PMID: 28389267
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/5511513View
Open Access

Abstract

The human immunodeficiency virus epidemic affects millions of people worldwide. As women are more vulnerable to infection, female-controlled interventions can help control the spread of the disease significantly. Glycerol monolaurate (GML), an inexpensive and safe compound, has been shown to protect against simian immunodeficiency virus infection when applied vaginally. However, on account of its low aqueous solubility, fabrication of high-dose formulations of GML has proven difficult. We describe the development of a vaginal cream that could be loaded with up to 35% GML. Vaginal drug levels and safety of 3 formulations containing increasing concentrations of GML (5%w/w, 15%w/w, and 35%w/w) were tested in rhesus macaques after vaginal administration. GML concentration in the vaginal tissue increased as the drug concentration in the cream increased, with 35% GML cream resulting in tissue concentration of ∼0.5 mg/g, albeit with high interindividual variability. Compared with the vehicle control, none of the GML creams had any significant effect on the vaginal flora and cytokine (macrophage inflammatory protein 3α and interleukin 8) levels, suggesting that high-dose GML formulations do not induce local adverse effects. In summary, we describe the development of a highly loaded vaginal cream of GML, and vaginal drug levels and safety after local administration in macaques.
HIV/AIDS global health pharmacokinetics formulation drug delivery systems

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