Method, compositions and kits for increasing the oral...

Details Method, compositions and kits for increasing the oral... Method, compositions and kits for increasing the oral...

1996-10-16

2001-06-12

Raymond, Richard L. (Department: 1611)

Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions

Designated organic active ingredient containing

Having -c-, wherein x is chalcogen, bonded directly to...

C514S449000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06245805

ABSTRACT:

REFERENCE TO DISCLOSURE DOCUMENTS
This application incorporates material included in Disclosure Document No. 377063, filed Jun. 23, 1995, No. 386504, filed Dec. 11, 1995, No. 391109, filed Feb. 7, 1996, and No. 391228, filed Feb. 7, 1996.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to methods, compositions and kits for improving the oral bioavailability of pharmaceutical agents that are poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, and to methods of treatment of patients through the oral administration of such agents. One aspect of the invention relates to the use of cyclosporins to enhance the oral bioavailability of paclitaxel and related taxanes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many valuable pharmacologically active compounds cannot be effectively administered by the oral route because of poor systemic absorption from the gastrointestinal tract. All these pharmaceutical agents are, therefore, generally administered via intravenous or intramuscular routes, requiring intervention by a physician or other health care professional, entailing considerable discomfort and potential local trauma to the patient and even requiring administration in a hospital setting with surgical access in the case of certain IV infusions.
It has been speculated that, in some cases, the poor bioavailability of a drug after oral administration is a result of the activity of a multidrug transporter, a membrane-bound P-glycoprotein, which functions as an energy-dependent transport or efflux pump to decrease intracellular accumulation of drug by extruding xenobiotics from the cell. This P-glycoprotein has been identified in normal tissues of secretory endothelium, such as the biliary lining, brush border of the proximal tubule in the kidney and luminal surface of the intestine, and vascular endothelial cells lining the blood brain barrier, placenta and testis.
It is believed that the P-glycoprotein efflux pump prevents certain pharmaceutical compounds from transversing the mucosal cells of the small intestine and, therefore, from being absorbed into the systemic circulation. A number of known non-cytotoxic pharmacological agents have been shown to inhibit P-glycoprotein, including cyclosporin A (also known as cyclosporine), verapamil, tamoxifen, quinidine and phenothiazines, among others. Many of these studies were aimed at achieving greater accumulation of cytotoxic drugs inside tumor cells. In fact, clinical trials have been conducted to study the effects of cyclosporine on the pharmacokinetics and toxicities of paclitaxel (Fisher et al.,
Proc. Am. Soc. Clin. Oncol.,
13: 143, 1994); doxorubicin (Bartlett et al.,
J. Clin. Onc.
12:835-842, 1994); and etoposide (Lum et al.,
J. Clin. Onc.
10:1635-42, 1992), all of which are anti-cancer agents known to be subject to multidrug resistance (MDR). These trials showed that patients receiving intravenous cyclosporine prior to or together with the anti-cancer drugs had higher blood levels of those drugs, presumably through reduced body clearance, and exhibited the expected toxicity at substantially lower dosage levels. These findings tended to indicate that the concomitant administration of cyclosporine suppressed the MDR action of P-glycoprotein, enabling larger intracellular accumulations of the therapeutic agents. For a general discussion of the pharmacologic implications for the clinical use of P-glycoprotein inhibitors, see Lum et al.,
Drug Resist. Clin. Onc. Hemat.,
9: 319-336 (1995); Schinkel et al.,
Eur. J. Cancer,
31A: 1295-1298 (1995).
In the aforedescribed studies relating to the use of cyclosporine to increase the blood levels of pharmaceutical agents subject to P-glycoprotein mediated resistance, the active agents and the cyclosporine were administered intravenously. No suggestion was made in these publications that cyclosporine or other substances believed to inhibit the P-glycoprotein efflux pump could be orally administered to substantially increase the bioavailability of orally administered anti-cancer drugs and other pharmaceutical agents which are themselves poorly absorbed from the gut without producing highly toxic side effects. Indeed, in the 1995 review paper cited above, Lum et al. showed that concomitant IV administration of MDR inhibitors and chemotherapeutic agents subject to MDR increased toxicity levels and exacerbated the patients' serious side effects. Schinkel et al. briefly adverted to the fact that MDR1 and P-glycoprotein are abundant in the mucosal cells of the intestine, and that this may affect the oral bioavailability of P-glycoprotein substrate drugs, but did not suggest or imply that the oral administration of MDR suppressing agents could improve the bioavailability of the orally unavailable agents. Furthermore, like Lum et al., Schinkel et al. warned that P-glycoprotein inhibitors can dramatically increase toxicity in chemotherapy patients and should, therefore, be used cautiously.
In an earlier publication, Schinkel et al. showed that absorption of orally ingested ivermectin was increased in mice homozygous for a disruption of the MDR1 a gene in comparison with normal mice, demonstrating that P-glycoprotein played a major role in reducing the bioavailability of this agent (
Cell
77: 491-502, 1994). In addition, this study also showed that the penetration of vinblastine into various tissues was enhanced in the mutant mice.
None of the published studies provided any regimen for implementing the effective oral administration of otherwise poorly bioavailable drugs, e.g., indicating the respective dosage ranges and timing of administration for specific target drugs and bioavailability-enhancing agents or demonstrating which MDR-inhibiting agents are best suited for promoting oral absorption of each target drug or class of drugs.
Methods disclosed in the art for increasing gut absorption of drugs that have until now only been administered parenterally generally focus on the use of permeation and solubility enhancers as promoting agents, or the co-administration by intraluminal perfusion in the small intestine or by the intravenous route of P-glycoprotein inhibitors, e.g., Leu et al.,
Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol.,
35: 432-436, 1995 (perfusion or IV infusion of quinidine suppresses efflux of etoposide into the lumen of the G.I. tract from the blood). But these methods suffer from numerous drawbacks. The solubility and permeability enhancing agents are often either impractical or ineffective for oral administration in the doses required and may interfere with the pharmacological activity of the target drug. Parenteral administration of P-glycoprotein inhibitors in therapeutic (or near-therapeutic) doses into humans can cause severe clinical consequences. In the case of quinidine, for example, IV administration may cause arrhythmias, peripheral vasodilation, gastrointestinal upset and the like.
In published PCT application Ser. No. WO 95/20980 (published Aug. 10, 1995) Benet et al. disclose a purported method for increasing the bioavailability of orally administered hydrophobic pharmaceutical compounds. This method comprises orally administering such compounds to the patient concurrently with a bioenhancer comprising an inhibitor of a cytochrome P450 3A enzyme or an inhibitor of P-glycoprotein-mediated membrane transport. Benet et al., however, provide virtually no means for identifying which bioavailability enhancing agents will improve the availability of specific “target” pharmaceutical compounds, nor do they indicate specific dosage amounts, schedules or regimens for administration of the enhancing or target agents. In fact, although the Benet application lists dozens of potential enhancers (P450 3A inhibitors) and target drugs (P450 3A substrates), the only combination of enhancer and target agent supported by any experimental evidence in the application is ketoconazole as the enhancer and cyclosporin A as the target drug.
When describing the general characteristics of compounds which can be used as bioenhancers by reduction of P-glycoprotein transport activity, Benet et al.

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