Pharmacokinetics of 40 kDa PEG in rodents using high-field NMR spectroscopy

Abstract Conjugation of macromolecular drugs to polyethylene glycol (PEG) improves their therapeutic potential by reducing their rate of degradation, thereby extending the drugs half life. As a substantial component of the drug, it is necessary to measure the pharmacokinetic (PK) characteristics of PEG in vivo. A quantitative NMR-based method was developed and successfully applied to measuring double-branched polyethylene glycol 40 kDa (PEG40) in serum samples, enabling determination of PK parameters of PEG40 in preclinical species. NMR is ideal for measuring such polymers because a single, sharp peak is obtained for all the equivalent methylene protons; this amplifies the signal and makes the method insensitive to polymeric heterogeneity. High field NMR (600 MHz) with proton-observe cryoprobe technology allowed for analysis of samples in 300 nM range. Mice received 50 mg/kg of PEG40 intravenously (IV) and serum samples were collected at regular intervals for up to 72 h after dosing. The serum samples were analyzed for PEG40 using the NMR method and PK parameters were calculated using non-compartmental analysis. The volume of distribution was determined to be 0.17 L/kg for IV dosing, indicating limited distribution to interstitial space. A low clearance and observed half life of 18 h is consistent with previous reports on the PK properties of a variety of different PEG molecules ranging from 3 kDa to 190 kDa using 125 I-labeled PEG in mice. The current NMR technique is easy to implement and does not require labeling of the PEG. Additionally, this is the first report, to our knowledge, of NMR spectroscopy application to PK profiling in serum.