BACKGROUND

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) represents a major unmet medical need that currently has no preventive and/or curative treatment. This is, among others, driven by a poor understanding of the contributive role of drug transport across biological barriers to target-site exposure.

METHODS

Here, we systematically investigated the transport of 11 small-molecule drugs, both, associated and not with CIPN development, at conventional (dorsal root ganglia, sciatic nerve) and non-conventional (brain, spinal cord, skeletal muscle) CIPN sites. We developed a Combinatory Mapping Approach for CIPN, CMA-CIPN, combining in vivo and in vitro elements.

RESULTS

Using CMA-CIPN, we determined the unbound tissue-to-plasma concentration ratio (K) and the unbound intracellular-to-extracellular concentration ratio (K), to quantitatively assess the extent of unbound drug transport across endothelial interfaces and parenchymal cellular barriers of investigated CIPN-sites, respectively, in a rat model. The analysis revealed that unique pharmacokinetic characteristics underly time-dependent accumulation of the CIPN-positive drugs paclitaxel and vincristine at conventional (dorsal root ganglia and sciatic nerve) and non-conventional (skeletal muscle) CIPN sites. Investigated CIPN-positive drugs displayed intracellular accumulation contrary to CIPN-negative drugs nilotinib and methotrexate, which lacked this feature in all investigated tissues.

CONCLUSIONS

Hence, high unbound drug intracellular and extracellular exposure at target sites, driven by an interplay of drug transport across the endothelial and parenchymal cellular barriers, is a predisposing factor to CIPN development for CIPN-positive drugs. Critical drug-specific features of unbound drug disposition at various CIPN- sites provide invaluable insights into understanding the pharmacological/toxicological effects at the target-sites which will inform new strategies for monitoring and treatment of CIPN.