title: Enhancement of Mycophenolate Mofetil Permeation for Topical Use by Eucalyptol and N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone.
abstract: Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is a prodrug of mycophenolic acid (MPA) which can be metabolized by esterase. MMF has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for treatment of psoriasis patient with skin symptoms. However, it remains unclear whether MMF is efficiently effective to treat skin symptoms developed from psoriasis. The insufficient amount of MMF penetrating through the skin results in the treatment failure due to the difficulty in MMF penetration through the stratum corneum. Skin permeation enhancers such as eucalyptol (EUL) and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) potentially aid in increasing skin penetration. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a concentration ratio (% w/v) between two enhancers (EUL and NMP). The results showed that EUL enhanced MMF permeation with an enhancement ratio (ER) of 3.44 while NMP was not able to promote the penetration of MMF. Interestingly, the synergistic effect of the two enhancers was observed with a suitable ratio given that the ER was 8.21. EUL and NMP are promising enhancers for the development of MMF based skin product.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90112, Thailand.
authors.forename: Thanaporn
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5480-8799
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Amnuaikit
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90112, Thailand.
authors.forename: Chalermkiat
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Songkram
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla 90112, Thailand.
authors.forename: Sirirat
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0600-0565
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pinsuwan