In vitro and in vivo characterization of meloxicam nanoparticles designed for nasal administration

The nasal pathway represents a non-invasive route for delivery of drugs to the systemic circulation. Nanonization of poorly soluble drugs offers a possibility to increase dissolution properties, epithelial permeability or even bioavailability. The aim of the present study was to use in vitro methods to screen formulations which were intended for nasal application, and to perform animal experiments for recognizing the differences in plasmakinetics of intranasal- and oral-administered meloxicam nanoparticles. Due to nanonization the solubility of meloxicam elevated up to 1.2 mg/mL, additionally the extent of dissolution also increased, complete dissolution was observed in 15 min. Favorable in vitro diffusion profile of meloxicam nanoparticles was observed and their epithelial permeability through human RPMI 2650 cells was elevated. The pharmacokinetic parameters were significantly increased when meloxicam was administered as nanoparticles to rats either nasally (increase of C-max 2.7-fold, AUC 1.5-fold) or orally (increase of C-max 2.4-fold, AUC 2-fold) as compared to physical mixture of the drug and the excipients. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.