In vitro–in vivo correlations for nicotine transdermal delivery systems evaluated by both in vitro skin permeation (IVPT) and in vivo serum pharmacokinetics under the influence of transient heat application

The in vitro permeation test (IVPT) has been widely used to characterize the bioavailability (BA) of compounds applied on the skin. In this study, we performed IVPT studies using excised human skin (in vitro) and harmonized in vivo human serum pharmacokinetic (PK) studies to evaluate the potential in vitro–in vivo correlation (IVIVC) of nicotine BA from two, matrix-type, nicotine transdermal delivery systems (TDS). The study designs used for both in vitro and in vivo studies included 1 h of transient heat (42 ± 2 °C) application during early or late time periods post-dosing. The goal was to evaluate whether any IVIVC observed would be evident even under conditions of heat exposure, in order to investigate further whether IVPT may have the potential to serve as a possible surrogate method to evaluate the in vivo effects of heat on the bioavailability of a drug delivered from a TDS. The study results have demonstrated that the BA of nicotine characterized by the IVPT studies correlated with and was predictive of the in vivo BA of nicotine from the respective TDS, evaluated under the matched study designs and conditions. The comparisons of single parameters such as steady-state concentration, heat-induced increase in partial AUCs and post-treatment residual content of nicotine in TDS from the in vitro and in vivo data sets showed no significant differences (p ≥ 0.05). In addition, a good point-to-point IVIVC (Level A correlation) for the entire study duration was achieved by predicting in vivo concentrations of nicotine using two approaches: Approach I requiring only an in vitro data set and Approach II involving deconvolution and convolution steps. The results of our work suggest that a well designed IVPT study with adequate controls can be a useful tool to evaluate the relative effects of heat on the BA of nicotine from TDS with different formulations.