Calcitonin Transport through Skin Using Iontophoresis

The objective of this work is to study transdermal delivery of calcitonin using iontophoresis and to evaluate various factors which affect the transdermal transport. We have studied the effect of polarity, current density, drug concentration, penetration enhancers (isopropyl myristate [IPM] and ethanol) and laser treatment on transdermal flux and the results were compared. We also investigated the iontophoretic flux from microemulsions containing calcitonin together with oleic acid (OA) or IPM. In vitro flux study was performed at $33^{\circ}C$, using side-by-side diffusion cell and full thickness hairless mouse skin. Anodal delivery at pH 3.0 was much larger than cathodal and passive delivery, due to the positive charge of calcitonin. Cumulative amount delivered (CUM) by cathodal or passive delivery was close to zero for 10 hours. The pretreatment of skin by neat IPM markedly increased the CUM anodically. CUM increased as the current density, drug concentration or the duration of IPM treatment increased. Microemulsion containing IPM or oleic acid was prepared and the phase diagram was constructed. CUM also increased when IPM was incorporated into a microemulsion. OA microemulsion showed similar enhancing effect to IPM microemulsion. The delivery of calcitonin from 70% (v/v) ethanol aqueous solution showed a large increase in flux. Laser treatment of skin before flux experiment exhibited about 2 fold increase in total calcitonin amount transported for 12 hours, when compared to that delivered by IPM microemulsion. Based on these results, we have evaluated the possibility of delivering enough amount of calcitonin to reach the therapeutic level. The data suggest that it is highly possible to deliver clinically effective amount of calcitonin using iontophoresis patch with small area (<10 $cm^2$).