Improved Delivery Volumes in Intranasal Administration for Rodents and Large Animals
Sep 10 2013
Charles River has extensive intranasal capabilities and over 15 years of experience in conducting studies using the intranasal route. The intranasal dosing procedure has been used successfully in several toxicology studies in support of clinical trials ranging from acute to chronic in both rodent and nonrodent laboratory species. Recently we have significantly increased the total volume of test items that can be administered via this route.
Rodents (Rats and Mice)
A pre-calibrated micropipette is used to deliver volumes typically ranging between 5 and 40 µL per naris. However, a volume as high as 50 µL may be given for studies of short duration. This represents an increase of 20-30 μL per naris on previous total volumes administered.
For mice, the volumes administered range between 4 and 10 µL per naris. Animals are handled in a similar manner to the oral gavage dosing procedure.
Up to 8 doses of 40 µL per naris (4 sprays per naris per dosing session), separated by 1 hour, can be performed for rats. Animals are typically dosed with a fixed volume and volumes are not adjusted according to body weight. The doses are based on a typical-sized rat of 250 grams.
Rabbits
Rabbits are usually given 50 µL per naris using a micropipette, commercially available nasal spray device or modified nasal spray device intended for clinical usage. The device is inserted into each naris at a depth no greater than 12 mm. Doses have been given at 1-hour intervals, up to 4 doses/day.
Large Animals
For large animals, a clinical device or commercially available nasal spray pump device is used. Alternatively, when the dose needs to be administered based on the animal’s body weight, a calibrated micropipette or a 1 cc syringe could also be used to deliver the dose in each nostril.
For large animals, dose volumes range from 50 to 150 µL per naris at each administration and can be repeated at half hourly intervals for up to 16 administrations. Again, this represents a significant increase on our previous maximum dosing regimen, which consisted of 50-100 μL per naris, up to 4 times per day at hourly intervals.
At Charles River, our experienced scientists can guide you in the selection of the dosing device, dosing volumes and design for your intranasal drug development program.
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