Level A IVIVC for immediate release tablets confirms in vivo predictive dissolution testing for ibuprofen.

A bioequivalence study comparing two fixed dose combination tablets containing 200 mg ibuprofen and 30 mg pseudoephedrine hydrochloride showed bioequivalence for pseudoephedrine AUC and Cmax, but the reference product showed higher Cmax than the test product in fasted conditions. The main difference between products was the presence of tribasic calcium phosphate in the reference tablet, resulting in an increased surface pH of the dissolving ibuprofen particles under gastric and intestinal conditions and, consequently, higher solubility of ibuprofen. A mechanistic model based on mass balance and ionization equilibria was used to calculate the pH of the particle surface under different buffer conditions. The discrepancies in surface pH between test and reference tablet were pronounced in 0.1 M and 0.01 M hydrochloric acid and in diluted maleate 7 mM pH 6.5 and phosphate 5 mM pH 6.7 buffers (but negligible in compendial phosphate buffer pH 6.8. Only those dissolution tests using pre-treatment in acidic conditions could be used to build a one-step in vitro-in vivo correlation (IVIVC). This work shows the potential of these discriminatory and in vivo predictive dissolution methods to obtain IVIVCs for BCS class IIa drugs and for extending BCS biowaivers to BCS class IIa drugs.

Poliovirus modulates Bcl-xl expression in the human U937 promonocytic cell line.

Poliovirus induces bcl-2-independent apoptosis in the human U937 promonocytic cell line [28]. Here we describe that this cell death, induced after viral infection, correlates with the modulation of the protooncoprotein Bcl-xl. Furthermore, poliovirus infection decreases the detected Bcl-xl in a U937 clone that overexpresses this protein (U937bcl-xl). Although in U937bcl-xl cells, Bcl-xl was not as highly regulated as in parental U937 cells, correlation between Bcl-xl modulation and the cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase could be observed. Nevertheless, the induction of shutoff after infection of transfected control U937neo or U937bcl-xl clones was not significantly altered. Finally, production of new viral particles was slightly restricted in Bcl-xl-overexpressing U937 cells. Taken together, these results suggest that Bcl-xl is modulated during the induction of apoptosis in the promonocytic cell line U937 after poliovirus infection, although modulation of this protooncogene was not sufficient to modify the course of infection.