In-vitro Modeling of Intravenous Drug Precipitation by the Optical Spatial Precipitation Analyzer (OSPREY)

Abstract

Intravenous (IV) administration of poorly water-soluble small molecule therapeutics can lead to precipitation during mixing with blood. This can limit characterization of pharmacological and safety endpoints in preclinical models. Most often, tests of kinetic and thermodynamic solubility are used to optimize the formulation for solubility prior to infusion in animals, but these do not capture the dynamic precipitation processes that take place duringin-vivoadministration. To better capture the fluid dynamic processes that occur during IV administration, we developed the Optical Spatial Precipitation AnalYzer (OSPREY) as a method to quantify the amount and size of compound precipitates in whole blood using a flow-through system that mimics IV administration. Here, we describe the OSPREY device and its underlying imaging processing methods. We then validate the ability to accurately segment particles according to their size using monodisperse suspensions of microspheres (diameter 50 to 425 microns). Next, we use a tool compound, ABT-737, to study the effects of compound concentration, vessel flow rate, compound infusion rate and vessel diameter on precipitation. Finally, we use the physiological diameter and flow rate of rat femoral vein and dog saphenous vein to demonstrate the potential of OSPREY to modelin-vivoprecipitation in a controlled, dynamicin-vitroassay.HighlightsProspective small molecule therapeutics are often solubility challenged when injected into whole blood at elevated concentrations for toxicology studies.Improvedin-vitrosolubility measurements in a flowing system are needed to better understandin-vivointravenous precipitationOSPREY is a novelin-vitroflow-through system that quantifies solubility in whole bloodGraphical Abstract