The application of chemotherapeutics with chemical drugs is always challenged by their high toxicities throughout the body in clinical trials. Here, we reported a smart formulation of docetaxel developed by solid dispersion and effervescent techniques for efficient and safe delivery of chemical drug to lung tissue. To achieve a high delivery to lung with reduced systemic toxicity, docetaxel was loaded into a kind of lecithoid nanoparticles (DTX-LN) which were prepared by a solid dispersion and effervescent method. After intravenous administration of DTX-LN to rabbit, the docetaxel level in lung was approximately 37-fold higher than that of docetaxel injection (DTX-INJ, a commercial injection preparation of DTX/polysorbate 80 micelles) group at 0.5 h and showed the highest tissue distribution among all the organs. Besides, the targeting parameter Re value of total increased amount of DTX in lung (AUC0-t) ratio (DTX-LN to DTX-INJ) is about 16.69, indicating a significantly enhanced lung targeting ability of DTX-LN. In subacute toxicity study, DTX-LN displayed a reduced hematotoxicity, especially for the negative impacts on white blood cells, lymphocyte and granulocyte when compared with DTX-INJ during both weekly and 3-weekly schedules administration. In addition, histopathological analysis demonstrated that DTX-LN showed less tissue damages on rabbit heart and kidney compared to DTX-INJ. Hence, this work would provide an insight for improving lung delivery efficacy of drugs with reduced systemic toxicity.
Keywords: docetaxel; lecithoid nanoparticle; lung targeting; solid dispersion.