Zero-Order Release of Gossypol Improves Its Antifertility Effect and

Gossypol was considered a promising male contraceptive but finally failed due to two side effects: hypokalemia and the irreversibility of its contrace...
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Zero-Order Release of Gossypol Improves Its Antifertility Effect and Reduces Its Side Effects Simultaneously Na Wen,†,‡ Yansheng Dong,† Rui Song,† Wenpeng Zhang,† Chao Sun,† Xiaomei Zhuang,† Ying Guan,*,‡ Qingbin Meng,*,† and Yongjun Zhang*,‡ †

State Key Laboratory of Toxicology and Medical Countermeasures, Beijing Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Beijing, 100850, China ‡ State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Institute of Polymer Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin 300071, China S Supporting Information *

ABSTRACT: Gossypol was considered a promising male contraceptive but finally failed due to two side effects: hypokalemia and the irreversibility of its contraceptive effect. Here we demonstrate that sustained zero-order release could be a solution for these problems. The in vitro release of gossypol from gossypol/PEG layer-by-layer films follows a perfect zero-order kinetics. In vivo tests indicate that the films can maintain the plasma drug concentration constant in male SD rats for ∼20 days for a 30-bilayer film. The plasma drug concentration is 2 orders of magnitude lower than the peak plasma drug concentration when administered orally and the daily dose is >50-fold lower than the commonly used contraceptive oral dose. However, significant antifertility effects were still observed. Furthermore, hypokalemia was not observed, and the antifertility effects can be reversed after a recovery period. The results suggest that zero-order release can significantly improve the desired antifertility effect of gossypol and, meanwhile, significantly reduce its side effects. We envision the drug could be developed to be an effective, safe, and reversible male contraceptive by zero-order release.

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INTRODUCTION

To save the drug, one should improve its efficacy and, meanwhile, reduce its toxicity. Great efforts have been made in this context. One possible way is to modify the structure of the gossypol molecule. Many novel structural forms of gossypol were synthesized, however, none were found to be more active than gossypol itself.8,10 In a second approach, a low dose of gossypol was coadministrated with a steroid hormone.11,12 However, the gossypol dose was only lowered by half, which is still too high considering its potential toxicity. Here we propose that sustained zero-order release of the drug may be a solution for these problems. It is well-known that controlled drug release systems could offer benefits such as improved efficacy, reduced toxicity, and improved patient compliance and convenience.13 In particular, zero-order release systems release a drug at a constant rate. Therefore, they could maintain the drug concentration within the therapeutic window over an extended duration and thus achieve maximum benefit of the drug while minimizing the side effect of the drug.14−16

Contraception is an accepted route for population control and should be a responsibility of both men and women. Unfortunately, the commercially available contraceptives are all designed for women. In fact, considerable efforts have been made to develop male contraceptives.1−3 In the past decades many potential male contraceptives were tested but failed. One example is gossypol, a polyphenol isolated from cottonseed oil.4 The antifertility effects of gossypol were first discovered by Chinese scientists in 1970s.5 Large scale clinical trials, which involved over 10000 subjects and continued for over a decade, demonstrated that the drug was efficient and well tolerated.4−6 The discovery was considered as a major lead in the development of male contraception and aroused considerable interest in the drug around the world.7 After extensive studies, however, the enthusiasm of the investigators and agencies was severely dampened by two undesirable side effects of the drug.4,8,9 The first one was a reduction in blood potassium (hypokalemia), which in some studies affected up to 10% of users. The second one was the irreversibility of its contraceptive effect, which affected around 10% of Chinese users. Because of the two side effects, gossypol was actually abandoned as a male contraceptive. © XXXX American Chemical Society

Special Issue: Biomacromolecules Asian Special Issue Received: November 22, 2017 Revised: January 4, 2018

A

DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b01648 Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

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Figure 1. (A) Schematic depiction of LBL film of PEG/Gossypol in which PEG binds with gossypol via hydrogen bonds. (B) UV−vis absorption spectra of PEG-8K/Gossypol films with various bilayer numbers (0−10). Inset: Plot of absorbance at 240 nm against the bilayer number. were cared in accordance with international standards on animal welfare. The rats were divided into six groups (n = 5 for each group). The control group was not treated with film, while the other five groups were treated with PEG/gossypol film with various bilayer numbers. The size of the films was all 10 mm × 10 mm × 1 mm. The rats were first anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital (65 mg/kg i.p.). The film was then implanted subcutaneously at the back of the rats through a small incision in the neck region. An i.v. catheter was inserted into the jugular vein using standard aseptic surgical procedures. Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein at predetermined time intervals. All samples were centrifuged at 5000 rpm for 10 min and serum was collected. They were stored at −40 °C before analysis. The concentrations of gossypol in the serum were measured by LCMS using a Shimadzu LCMS-8060 triple quadrupole liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer (Shimadzu, Japan) equipped with an electrospray ionization (ESI) source, LC-30AD liquid chromatograph system, and an SIL-30AC autosampler. Data analyses were performed using LabSolutions 5.8 software (Shimadzu, Japan). The LC separation was achieved with a Kromasil 100−5C18 column (2.1 mm × 50 mm, 5 μm), equipped with an online filter, and maintained at 40 °C. The mobile phase consisted of water with 0.1% formic acid (solvent A) and acetonitrile with 0.1% formic acid (solvent B). Gradient elution at a constant flow rate of 0.5 mL/min was performed as follows: solvent B maintained at 5% for 0.5 min before linearly increased to 95% from 0.5 to 2.5 min. It was kept at 95% from 2.5 to 4.5 min and linearly decreased to 5% from 4.5 to 5 min, then kept at 5% to 6.5 min. The injection volume for each sample was 5 μL. The mass spectrometer was operated in the negative ion detection mode, and quantification was performed using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) of transitions of m/z 517.05 → 231.10 for gossypol and of m/ z 269.10 → m/z 170.10 for tolbutamide (internal standard). The collision energy parameters for the two compounds were 42 and 17 V, respectively. The optimum ion source parameters were as follows: nebulizing gas flow, 3 L/min; heating gas flow, 10 L/min; interface temperature, 300 °C; DL temperature, 250 °C; heat block temperature, 400 °C; drying gas flow, 10 L/min. For the preparation of standard curve samples, stock solutions of gossypol and tolbutamide were prepared individually at concentrations of 10 and 2 μg/mL in acetonitrile, respectively. Six working standard solutions containing 1, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 ng/mL of gossypol were prepared by serial dilution of the stock solution with appropriate volumes of acetonitrile. The working solution of the tolbutamide was prepared by diluting the stock solution with acetonitrile to a final concentration of 20 ng/mL. All stock solutions were stored at 4 °C, and all working solutions were freshly prepared before use. Plasma calibration standard samples were prepared by spiking 50 μL of fresh plasma with 5 μL of the appropriate gossypol

However, zero-order drug release is extremely difficult to achieve.13,17 Here we designed a novel drug carrier from which the release of gossypol follows a perfect zero-order kinetics. In vivo tests indicate it can maintain the plasma drug concentration constant for an extended period. Despite the facts that the plasma drug concentration is 2 orders of magnitude lower than the peak plasma drug concentration when administrated orally and the daily dose is >50-fold lower than the commonly used contraceptive oral dose, significant antifertility effects were observed. More importantly, the undesired side effects can be avoided. Hypokalemia was not observed, and the antifertility effects can be reversed after a recovery period. Therefore, it is possible to develop the drug an effective, safe, and reversible male contraceptive by zero-order release.

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EXPERIMENTAL SECTION

Materials. Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG, Mw = 4K, 8K, 10K, and 20K) and (±) gossypol from cotton seeds (>95%) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich. The chemicals were used as received without further purification. Fabrication of LBL Films. The PEG/Gossypol LBL films were fabricated using quartz slides with a size of 45 mm × 10 mm × 1 mm as substrate. Before use the slides were cleaned in boiling piranha solution (3:7 v/v H2O2−H2SO4 mixture; caution: this solution is extremely corrosive!), rinsed thoroughly with deionized (DI) water, and then dried. PEG and gossypol solutions, both with a concentration of 0.5 mg/mL, were prepared using 10−3 M HCl and a 1:1 v/v mixture of 10−3 M HCl and ethanol (99%), respectively. To fabricate the films, the substrates were immersed in PEG and gossypol solutions alternately, each for 5 min, intermediated with twice washing in 10−3 M HCl (after deposition of PEG) or 1:1 v/v mixture of 10−3 M HCl and ethanol (after deposition of gossypol), each for 1 min. This cycle was repeated until the desired bilayer numbers were reached. The films were not detached from the substrate. Instead, films attached on the substrate were used in the following in vitro and in vivo tests. In Vitro Release of Gossypol. The LBL films were immersed in 20 mL of release media (pH 7.4 50 mM phosphate buffer, if not otherwise specified), which were incubated at 37 °C (if not otherwise specified). At appropriate time points, the release media were completely withdrawn and replaced with the same volume of prewarmed fresh media. The concentration of gossypol in the release media was measured by the absorbance of the solution using a UV1800 spectrophotometer (Shimadzu, Japan). In Vivo Release. In vivo release of gossypol was carried out with male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats (12 weeks, 400−450 g). The SD rats B

DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b01648 Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

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Figure 2. (A) Schematic depiction of the release of gossypol from the film via gradual disintegration of the film. (B, C) Release of gossypol from different bilayer number of PEG/Gossypol films drawn as percentage release (B) and cumulative released amount (C). (D) Release duration as a function of film thickness (represented as the absorbance of the original film at 240 nm). Release media: 50 mM pH7.4 phosphate buffer. T = 37 °C. working standard solution, mixed, and then spiking with 150 μL of tolbutamide working solution. The samples were vortexed for 1 min and centrifuged at 14000 rpm, 4 °C for 10 min. The supernatants were collected for LC-MS/MS analysis. The final concentrations for gossypol standard curve were 0.1, 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 ng/mL. For the preparation of samples, plasma samples (50 μL) were spiked with 5 μL of blank acetonitrile and then 150 μL of the tolbutamide working solution (20 ng/mL). The samples were vortexed for 1 min and centrifuged at 14000 rpm at 4 °C for 10 min. The supernatants were then collected for LC-MS/MS analysis. The concentrations of K+ in the serum were measured with a Hitachi 7180 automatic biochemistry analyzer (Hitachi, Tokyo, Japan). The contraceptive effect was evaluated by the change of sex organ weight and the sperm motility. The animals were sacrificed with carbon dioxide followed by exsanguination at predetermined time points. The weight of testis and epididymis were recorded. To test the sperm mobility, one epididymis of each animal was placed in 5 mL of sperm nutritive medium and the cauda epididymis was slightly stabbed with a needle. After incubating the tissue at about 37 °C for 3−5 min, the sperm suspensions were gently shaken. Then, about 20 μL of sperm suspensions were assayed for the determination of mobility with a sperm analyzer (TOX IVOS, Hamilton, U.S.A.). All experimental procedures were conducted in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the China National Academy of Sciences, and were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the Beijing Institute Pharmacology and Toxicology. Statistical Analysis. All experiments were repeated at least three times. The results were expressed as mean ± SD.

(LBL) assembly.18 For this purpose, a substrate, e.g. quartz slide, was dipped into a polyethylene glycol (PEG) and a gossypol solution alternately. In this way, PEG and gossypol were deposited onto the substrate via hydrogen bonding between the two chemicals (Figure 1A).19,20 The successful fabrication of the film was demonstrated by the increasing absorbance of the film with increasing dipping cycles (Figure 1B). Like other hydrogen-bonded LBL films, an exponential growth pattern was observed for the PEG/gossypol films21 (inset of Figure 1B). The effects of various factors, including the concentration of assembly solutions, temperature, pH, and molecular weight of PEG, on the film growth are also similar to other hydrogen-bonded LBL films21 (Figure S1). The films all exhibit a smooth morphology (Figure S2). The thickness of a 15-bilayer film was measured by AFM to be 42.5 nm. The films were soaked in phosphate buffer and the in vitro release profiles of gossypol from the films were measured. Figure 2 shows the release profile of 4 PEG/gossypol films with different bilayer numbers. In all cases the release rate of gossypol remains constant until all drugs were released.(Figure 2B) During the process, the absorbance of the film also decreases linearly with time.(Figure S3) The release profiles were replotted in terms of cumulative released amount of gossypol in Figure 2C, instead of percentage release as in Figure 2B. One can see the films actually release gossypol at the same rate, despite that their thickness is different. Figure 2D shows the duration for a film to continuously release gossypol as a function of the film thickness. Apparently the duration is proportional to the film thickness. The in vitro release experiments reveal that the release of gossypol from the PEG/gossypol films follows a perfect zero-

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION To achieve zero-order release of gossypol, here the drug was incorporated into a thin film using the so-called layer-by-layer C

DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b01648 Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

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Figure 3. (A) Plasma gossypol concentration in rats implanted with 10, 20, and 30 bilayer PEG-8K/gossypol films. (B, C) Weights (B) and pictures (C) of testis and epididymis for rats implanted with 0(control), 10, 20, and 30-bilayer PEG-8K/gossypol films. (D) Sperm motility (Right side epididymal tail) of rats implanted with 0 (control), 10-, 20-, and 30-bilayer PEG-8K/gossypol films. Data are mean ± SD (n = 5). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.005 (compared to control group).

order kinetics (Figure 2). Previous efforts have demonstrated that zero-order release is difficult to achieve.13,17 In fact, most of the current drug carriers release drug in a typical “fast-thenslow” manner, instead of at a constant rate.22 Here the unique release behavior of PEG/gossypol films should be attributed to their unique release mechanism. Unlike ordinary drug carriers, which release drug via diffusion or polymer degradation,13 here gossypol was released via the gradual disintegration of the film as schematically shown in Figure 2A.23−25 Like many other hydrogen-bonded LBL films,19,21,26−28 because PEG and gossypol in the films are linked with reversible, dynamic hydrogen bonds, the films disintegrate gradually when soaked in aqueous solutions, and thus release the drug into the solution. Gradual disintegration of LBL films linked with other dynamic bonds, such as phenylboronate ester bonds23,29,30 and Schiff base bonds,25 also disintegrate gradually when soaked in aqueous solutions.31 The film disintegration is actually the dissociation of the film material, that is, PEG/gossypol complex. Meanwhile, free PEG and gossypol in the media may deposit back onto the film, or form soluble PEG/gossypol complex and remain in the solution. The whole process can be described using the following reactions:

R = R dissociation − R deposition = k1[PEG/gossypol] − k 2[PEG][gossypol]

where [PEG/gossypol] is the concentration of PEG/gossypol complex in the film, [PEG] and [gossypol] the concentrations of free PEG and gossypol in the media, respectively, and k1 and k2 are the rate constants. Under the experimental conditions, [PEG] and [gossypol] in the media are very low. Therefore, the second term, that is, the rate for free PEG and gossypol to deposit back, can be omitted. The release rate of gossypol can be rewritten as R = R dissociation = k1[PEG/gossypol]

Here [PEG/gossypol], the concentration of PEG/gossypol complex in the film, could be regarded as constant. Meanwhile, because both PEG and gossypol have a narrow molecular weight distribution, k1 for all species can be regarded to be the same. Therefore, the release rate of gossypol, that is, the disintegration rate of PEG/gossypol film, is constant. From Figure 2B one can see that, for the present release system, the initial burst release, a common problem for many drug carriers, was completely avoided. The zero-order kinetics was followed throughout the whole process. In contrast, for many zero-order release carriers reported previously, constant release can only be observed in a certain period of the release process. For films with different thicknesses, they actually release gossypol at the same rate (Figure 2C), and the duration for a film to continuously release gossypol is proportional to its thickness (Figure 2D). This feature makes the new carrier highly predictable. For a film with a known film thickness, one

k1

PEG/gossypol(film) ⇌ PEG + gossypol k2

⇌ PEG/gossypol(soluble complex)

Therefore, the release rate of gossypol can be written as D

DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b01648 Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

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Biomacromolecules Table 1. Comparison of the Results of Present Study to Literature Results animal

administration route

dose (mg/kg/day)

present study ref 32 ref 12 ref 36

SD rat SD rat Wistar rat SD rat

implantation single oral daily oral daily oral

0.44 10 50 25

ref 37 ref38 ref11

Wistar rat Albino rat Wistar rat

6 orals a week daily oral daily oral

20 22−25 12.5

duration (day)

plasma drug level (ng/ mL)

∼20

∼35 ∼3600 (peak)

56 17 34 42 28 56

will be able to predict how long the film will continuously release the drug. On the other hand, one could fabricate a film with a particular thickness according to its predetermined release duration. The system can not only achieve a sustained and constant release of gossypol, but the release rate of gossypol can be tuned via external stimuli and the molecular weight (Mw) of PEG. As shown in Figure S4A, the release rate of gossypol increases with increasing pH because an elevated pH promotes the dissociation of gossypol and therefore weakens the hydrogen bonds between it and PEG. In addition, the increased electrostatic repulsion among the charged gossypol molecules is also favorable for the film disintegration. Figure S4B shows that the release rate increases with increasing temperature because heating could partially break the hydrogen bonds in hydrogenbonded LBL films.20 However, an increased NaCl concentration in the release media slows down the gossypol release because the electrostatic repulsion among the charged gossypol molecules can be screened at an increased ionic strength (Figure S4C). The release rate can also be tuned by the Mw of PEG. As Figure S4D shows, the release rate decreases with increasing Mw of PEG. It is expected that a longer PEG chain (higher Mw) has more binding sites to interact with gossypol and binds with gossypol more tightly. Therefore, the PEG/ gossypol complex dissociates at a lower rate. To study the in vivo release behavior, the films were subcutaneously implanted in male SD rats. The change in the plasma gossypol concentration was then followed by LC-MS. As shown in Figure 3A, gossypol was detected soon after the implantation. Then the plasma gossypol concentration remains almost constant at ∼35 ng/mL before a sudden drop to zero. The result strongly suggests that the in vivo release of gossypol also follows a zero-order kinetics. For rats implanted with a 10bilayer film, the plasma gossypol level can be maintained for ∼3 days. The duration increases to be ∼20 days when implanted with a 30-bilayer film. As the in vitro test reveals, the duration for a film to continuously release gossypol increases with the film thickness (Figure 2D). Therefore, the plasma gossypol level can be maintained for a longer duration in rats implanted with a thicker film. The pharmacokinetic profile of the PEG/gossypol films is very different from the same drug administrated orally or via intravenous injection.32−35 First, oral administration and intravenous injection will result in a high peak plasma drug concentration. Othman and Abou-Donia32 reported a peak level of 3.6 μg/mL in SD rats after a single oral 10 mg/kg dose of gossypol. This value is 2 orders of magnitude higher than the plasma gossypol concentration observed here in SD rates treated with PEG/gossypol films (∼35 ng/mL). When the drug was administrated via intravenous injection, the peak plasma

testis wt decrease 26%

sperm motility decrease 70%

66% no reduction complete immobilization no change no change

85% 34%

drug concentration is even higher.32,34,35 Second, when administrated orally or via intravenous injection, the plasma drug concentration rises sharply, reaches a peak, and then drops quickly with time. It was reported that the apparent half-life is 2.35 and 4.04 h for an intravenous gossypol doses of 2 and 5 mg/kg, respectively.35 In contrast, when administrated as implanted PEG/gossypol films, the plasma drug concentration remains almost constant. As mentioned above, a 30-bilayer film can maintain the plasma drug concentration for ∼20 days. The duration can be extended even longer by increasing the film thickness. To check the antifertility effects of the released drug, the animals were sacrificed 4 days after the plasma gossypol concentration dropped to zero. The weights of testis and epididymis and the motility of spermatozoa from the cauda of the epididymis were measured.36 Compared to the control group, a ∼7.5, 14, and 26% decrease in testis weight, and a ∼16, 18, and 26% decrease in epididymal weight were observed for rats implanted with 10, 20, and 30-bilayer PEG/gossypol films, respectively.(Figure 3B) The reduced size of the organs can be directly observed from their photos as shown in Figure 3C. Compared to the control group, a decrease in the weight ratio of the organs and the body was also observed (Figure S5). More importantly, significant decrease in sperm motility was observed. Compared to the control group, sperm motility decreased by ∼25, 50, and 70%, for rats implanted with 10-, 20-, and 30-bilayer PEG/gossypol films, respectively (Figure 3D). These results suggest that a more significant antifertility effect will be achieved if the film can continuously release gossypol for a longer period. Table 1 compares the antifertility effect of gossypol achieved in the present study to that reported in the literature,11,12,32,36−38 in which the drug was usually administered orally. One can see the antifertility effect achieved here is comparable or even better than the literature results. For example, Radigue et al.36 found no change in the motility of spermatozoa from the cauda of the epididymis after SD rats were fed with gossypol at a dose of 25 mg/kg/day, which is the commonly used contraceptive oral dose for SD rats, for 17 days (complete immobilization was observed after 34 days). In contrast, here a 70% decrease in sperm motility was achieved in rats implanted with 30-bilayer PEG/gossypol films, which continuously release gossypol for ∼20 days. The result is quite striking considering the very different dose in the two studies. The amount of gossypol in a 30-bilayer PEG/gossypol film was estimated to be ∼3.74 mg. It continuously releases gossypol and maintains plasma drug levels constant for ∼20 days, and the average weight of the rats is 425 g. Therefore, the daily dose is estimated to be only 0.44 mg/kg, which is more than 50-fold less than the dose used in Radigue et al’s study.36 E

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Figure 4. (A) Plasma K+ concentration of the rats implanted with a 0 (control group, ○) or 30-bilayer PEG/gossypol film (treatment group, □). (B, C) Weights (B) and pictures (C) of testis and epididymis for rats implanted with a 30-bilayer PEG-8K/gossypol film. (D) Sperm motility (right side epididymal tail) of rats implanted with a 30-bilayer PEG-8K/gossypol film. Data are mean ± SD (n = 5). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.005. (compared to 4 week group).

The significantly enhanced antifertility effect should be attributed to a prolonged and continuous systemic exposure to the drug.13,39 For daily oral administration, because of the rapid clearance of the drug, only a portion of the treatment period is the plasma drug concentration in the therapeutic window.13 Very differently, in the present system, the plasma drug concentration is maintained within the therapeutic window for the whole period. Indeed, some previous studies have implied the importance of continuous exposure to the drug.32 For example, Weinbauer et al.40 found that a marked reduction in fertility occurred when rats received a gossypol dose of 15 mg/ kg/day for 5−10 weeks. In contrast, oral administration of gossypol at a dose of 30 mg/kg every other day for 10 weeks had no antifertility effect. The two main problems with gossypol to be developed as male contraceptive are hypokalemia and the irreversibility of its contraceptive effect.8,9 In clinic trials the hypokalaemic paralysis is an infrequent but troublesome side effect of gossypol treatment.41 Transient decrease in the plasma K+ level was also observed in some animal experiments.38 To check if hypokalemia also occurs in the present study, plasma K+ concentration of the rats was measured. As shown in Figure 4A, like the rats implanted with blank quartz slide, for rats implanted with a 30-bilayer PEG/gossypol film, plasma K+ concentration remains constant throughout the whole treatment period. The result suggests hypokalemia did not occur in the present study. Previous studies show that long-term oral administration of gossypol result in infertility but the contraceptive effect cannot be reversed in term of sperm motility11 or sex organ weight.12

To check reduced fertility of the rats implanted with 30 bilayer PEG/gossypol films can be restored, they were sacrificed after a period of recovery. As shown in Figure 4B−D, a decrease in both the sex organ weight and sperm mobility were observed at 4 weeks, indicating an apparent antiferitlity effect. (The 30 bilayer PEG/gossypol film can maintain plasma gossypol level for ∼20 days.) Thereafter, both the sex organ weight and sperm mobility increases with time. At 12 weeks, both factors even exceed the corresponding value at 0 week. A similar trend was observed for the weight ratio of the sex organ and body (Figure S6). The results strongly suggest that the antifertility effect of gossypol released from the PEG/gossypol films can be reversed. The results shown in Figure 4 suggest that the two main side effects of gossypol can be avoided by zero-order release. These results could be attributed to the significantly lowered plasma drug concentration. As mentioned above, the plasma drug concentration in the present system (∼35 ng/mL) is more than 2 orders of magnitude lower than the peak plasma level observed in oral or injection systems (e.g., 3.6 μg/mL at 10 mg/kg oral dose32). The significantly reduced side effect can also be explained in view of the dose of gossypol. It is wellknown that the toxicity of gossypol is dose-dependent.42 Previously, M. Gafvels et al.42 injected gossypol daily for 5 weeks to SD rats and found a low dose (1 mg/kg) had no toxic effect while a 10-fold increase of the noneffective dose caused serious side effects. Therefore, a valid strategy to reduce side effects is to use a lower oral dose of gossypol. However, previous studies suggested the oral dose can only be reduced by half from 25 to 12.5 mg/kg/day. In addition, steroid hormone should be coadministrated to make the drug effective.11 As F

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mentioned above, compared to the contraceptive oral dose for rats (25 mg/kg/day), here the dose reduced by more than 50fold. Even compared to the low injection dose (1 mg/kg) revealed to be safe for rats by M. Gafvels et al.,42 the dose used here is still 1-fold lower. Considering the extremely low dose used here, it is not surprising that no toxic effect was found.

CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, we designed a drug carrier for gossypol, which is LBL film fabricated from gossypol and PEG. The film releases gossypol as a result of the gradual disintegration of the films. Gossypol release follows a perfect zero-order kinetics. When subcutaneously implanted in male SD rats, a constant plasma drug concentration, which is more than 2 orders magnitude lower than the peak plasma drug concentration when administrated orally, can be maintained for ∼20 days for a 30-bilayer film. Despite that the daily dose is over 50-folds lower than the commonly used contraceptive oral dose, significant antifertility effects, in terms of weight of sex organs and sperm motility, were observed. Hypokalemia was not observed in the rats, and the antifertility effects can be reversed after a recovery period. The significantly reduced toxicity was attributed to the low plasma drug concentration and low drug dose. It is expected that gossypol can be developed as an effective, safe, and reversible male contraceptive by the usage of a zero-order release carrier. ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information *

The Supporting Information is available free of charge on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b01648.

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REFERENCES

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Article

Effects of various factors on film growth and gossypol release (PDF).

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Authors

*E-mail: [email protected]. *E-mail: [email protected]. *E-mail: [email protected]. ORCID

Yongjun Zhang: 0000-0002-1079-4137 Notes

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Mr. Changkun Li from Shimadzu for help with gossypol quantification, and Mrs. Na Wei, Ms. Xiaojiao Yan, Ms. Rongjuan Ren, Mr. Gang Han, Mr. Manyi Jing, Mr. Zhao Meng, and Mr. Junyi Chen from Beijing Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology for their kind help with the animal experiments and data detection. The authors gratefully acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21374048, 51625302, and 81573354), Tianjin Committee of Science and Technology (Grant No. 16JCZDJC32900), and the National Key Technologies R&D Program for New Drugs of China (2012ZX09301003). G

DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b01648 Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

Article

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DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b01648 Biomacromolecules XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX