Transport and lymphatic uptake of monoclonal antibodies after subcutaneous injection.

Abstract Subcutaneous injection has emerged to become a feasible self-administration practice for biotherapeutics due to the patient comfort and cost effectiveness. However, the available knowledge about transport and absorption of these agents after subcutaneous injection, is limited. Here, a mathematical framework to study the subcutaneous drug delivery of mAbs from injection to lymphatic uptake is presented. A three-dimensional poroelastic model is exploited to find the biomechanical response of the tissue by taking into account tissue deformation during the injection. The results show that including tissue deformability, noticeably changes tissue poromechanical response due to significant dependence of interstitial pressure on the tissue deformation. Moreover, the importance of amount of lymph fluid at injection site and injection rate on the drug uptake to lymphatic capillaries is highlighted. Finally variability of lymphatic uptake due to uncertainty in parameters including tissue poromechanical and lymphatic absorption parameters is evaluated.