Abeer Al-Ghananeem
Sullivan University College of Pharmacy, USA
Title: Pharmaceutical & drug delivery technologies for efficient pain management
Biography
Biography: Abeer Al-Ghananeem
Abstract
Breakthrough pain in cancer patients is a transitory exacerbation of pain experienced for a short period of time by the patient who has relatively stable and adequately controlled baseline pain. Transmucosal drug delivery through intranasal, sublingual, and buccal mucosa are considered an attractive routes to deliver breakthrough pain management medications. It avoids the hepatic first-pass clearance, which results in enhanced bioavailability and faster onset of drug action. The in-vivo pharmacokinetics of three breakthrough pain drugs has been evaluated in rabbis. Conscious rabbits were used, because anesthesia could impair the nasal mucociliary clearance and thereby allowing the formulations to remain in contact with the nasal mucosa for a longer time than would be normally expected without anesthesia. The same apply for the sublingual delivery to mimic the transient time in clinical use. In two separate experiments, the sublingual administration of Fentanyl and Oxycodone showed promising kinetic profiles, resulting in a rapid absorption with acceptable absolute bioavailability up to 82%. Factors such as formulation viscosity and drug moieties of salt versus free base were also evaluated in light of its effect on absolute bioavailability. Furthermore, Tetrahydrocannabenol (THC) intranasal delivery, also showed acceptable bioavailability comparable to the currently marketed soft gelatin capsules formulations, but irritation to nasal mucous membranes requires further drug formulation efforts to overcome this problem. With the increase demand on enhancing the quality of cancer patients’ life, transmucosal delivery offers compelling opportunities to bring new safe and effective drugs to the market.