Study on preparation and in vivo safety of progesterone cocrystal / 中国药房

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE To prepare progesterone-2-chloro-4-nitroaniline cocrystal （CNA） so as to improve the solubility of progesterone and primarily evaluate the safety of the progesterone cocrystal in vivo. METHODS Using progesterone as the main body and CNA as the ligand， progesterone-CNA cocrystal was prepared with solvent evaporation method. The cocrystal was characterized by X-ray single crystal diffraction， X-ray powder diffraction （XRPD）， differential scanning calorimetry （DSC） and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy （IR）. The dissolution rate of cocrystal was compared with those of progesterone and physical mixture. Forty-eight female KM mice were randomly divided into normal group （phosphate buffer containing 0.1% dimethyl sulfoxide）， progesterone group （16 mg/kg）， CNA group （9 mg/kg）， progesterone-CNA cocrystal low-dose， medium- dose and high-dose groups （6， 12.5， 25 mg/kg）， with 8 mice in each group. They were given relevant medicine/solvent intramuscularly， once a day， for consecutive 14 d. The safety of cocrystal was evaluated primarily by determining/observing the changes in body weight， organ index， tissue morphology， blood routine indicators， and liver and kidney function indicators. RESULTS The new crystal structure in the X-ray single crystal diffraction results， the new characteristic peak in the XRPD pattern， the change of melting point in the DSC results， and the change of the characteristic peak position in the range of 3 500- 2 750 cm－1 and 1 700-1 250 cm－1 in the infrared spectrum all Δ 基金项目国家重点研发计划项目（No.2022YFC3502100） indicated that progesterone-CNA cocrystal was successfully ＊第一作者 硕士研究生 。研究方向 ：药物制备技术与工艺 。 prepared， and the dissolution rate of cocrystal was more than E-mail：SWB_1221@163.com # 通信作者教授，硕士生导师，博士。研究方向：药物制备技术与 twice that of the progesterone raw material drug. The results of 工艺。E-mail：wuxx-415@126.com in vivo safety experiments showed that the mortality rate of all 中国药房 2023年第34卷第13期 China Pharmacy 2023 Vol. 34 No. 13 · 1567 · groups was zero. Compared with normal group， uterine indexes of mice in progesterone group and progesterone-CNA cocrystal groups were significantly increased （P＞0.05）， and endometrium was also thickened； there was no statistical difference in the changes of body mass， liver and kidney function， liver index， kidney index， the number of leukocyte， lymphocyte and neutrophil in routine blood test among those groups （P＞0.05）， and the morphology of liver and kidney tissue has also no significant difference. However， the number of plasma red blood cells in the progesterone group decreased significantly （P＜0.05）， and there was no statistical significance in the number difference of red blood cells among progesterone-CNA cocrystal groups （P＞0.05）. CONCLUSIONS The progesterone-CNA cocrystal is successfully prepared with good safety in vivo， which significantly improve the solubility of progesterone.