The effects of calcitonin nasal preparations and their excipients on mucociliary clearance in an ex-vivo frog palate test

Abstract

Abstract The topical tolerability of the commercial preparation of 1–7 Asu-eel and salmon calcitonin with 2% ammonium glycyrrhyzinate and 0·01% benzalkonium chloride, respectively, and of their excipients mixture in solution with increasing concentrations of ammonium glycyrrhyzinate and benzalkonium chloride, respectively, were assessed by investigating their effects on the mucociliary transport velocity in the ex-vivo frog palate preparation. This preparation provides an integrated biological model readily usable in the laboratory which closely resembles human nasal mucociliary clearance mechanism and can be used for rapid testing and toxicity of agents proposed for topical administration in the upper and lower airways. Frog-Ringer control, 1–7 Asu-eel and salmon calcitonin commercial spray preparations and the excipients plus 2% ammonium glycyrrhyzinate and plus 0·01% benzalkonium chloride did not modify significantly the mucociliary transport velocity, confirming their very good tolerability on ciliated epithelium. Higher concentrations of ammonium glycyrrhyzinate (10 and 20%) caused significant slowing, on average —32 and —55%, respectively. Higher concentrations of benzalkonium chloride (0·05 and 0·1%) also caused significant slowing, on average, —43·5 and —87%, respectively.