Chylomicron mimicking nanocolloidal carriers of rosuvastatin calcium for lymphatic drug targeting and management of hyperlipidemia.

The present work entails development of novel phospholipid-based self-nanoemulsifying systems (SNES) of rosuvastatin calcium for improving the oral biopharmaceutical performance via intestinal lymphatic pathways. The phospholipid complex-loaded SNES exhibited emulsification time of 142 s, particle size of 182.5 nm, polydispersity index of 0.35, zeta potential of -22.5 mV and complete in vitro drug release within 3 h. Cell line study on Caco-2 indicated absence of cytotoxicity and excellent cellular uptake of PL-SNES vis-à-vis plain SNES. Permeability study revealed >85% enhancement in the permeation, while intestinal perfusion study showed 2.9 and 3.5-fold increase in the permeation and absorption of the drug from the optimized PL-SNES over the pure drug suspension. Nearly 2.2 and 7.2-folds improvement in AUC and C, and 0.33-fold reduction in the T of drug was observed for PL-SNES vis-à-vis the pure drug suspension during pharmacokinetic study. Moreover, PL-SNES also showed superior antihyperlipidemic activity over the pure drug suspension during pharmacodynamic study. Overall, the developed nanoformulation yielded significant improvement in the oral deliverability of the explored drug candidate.