Pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of docetaxel liposome mediated by a novel galactosylated cholesterol derivatives synthesized by lipase-catalyzed esterification in non-aqueous phase.

The purpose of this study is to synthesize a novel galactosylated cholesterol derivative, cholesterol-diethenyl decanedioate-lactitol (CHS-DD-LA) through lipase-catalyzed esterification in non-aqueous and to evaluate the preparation, pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of docetaxel (DOC) liposomes modified with CHS-DD-LA (G-DOC-L), which may actively gather at the liver compared with the conventional DOC liposomes (DOC-L) and commercial dosage form of DOC injection (DOC-i). A rapid and simple liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assay was developed for the determination of the DOC concentration in plasma and tissues with Taxol as the internal standard (IS). To measure the liver-targeting effect of the G-DOC-L, relative uptake rate (Re), peak concentration ratio (Ce), targeting efficiency (Te) and relative targeting efficiency (RTe) were reduced as the evaluation parameters. The results showed that the entrapment efficiency, particle size and Zeta potential of G-DOC-L was 76.8 ± 3.5%, 95.6 nm and 27.19 mV, respectively. After i.v. administration at the dose of 2.5 mg/kg in rats, a decrease in the AUC, MRT and an increase in CL (p < 0.05) were observed in the G-DOC-L group compared with DOC-L. All these results suggested that galactose-anchored liposomes could rapidly be removed from the circulation in vivo. The tissue distribution of G-DOC-L was widely different from that of DOC-L. The Re of G-DOC-L, DOC-L on liver was 4.011, 0.102; Ce was 3.391, 0.111; Te was 55.01, 3.08, respectively, demonstrating that G-DOC-L had an excellent effect on liver-targeting, which may help to improve the therapeutic effect of hepatic diseases.