Pharmacokinetics of a single orally administered therapeutic dosage of cyclosporine A in healthy cats

Abstract

This study aimed to determine a pharmacokinetic profile for a single dosage of cyclosporine A (CsA) clinically used for immunosuppression in cats. Blood-CsA-concentrations were measured before and 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24 h after oral administration of 7 mg/kg body weight (BW) CsA (Atopica® oral solution) to 8 healthy adult cats using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using WinNonLin software based on a 1-compartment-model. The median maximum plasma-concentration of 1466 ng/ml (530–2235 ng/ml; minimum–maximum) was reached after 2.0 h (1.0–4.7 h). The area under the curve was 12,568 h x ng/ml (5732–20,820 h x ng/ml) and the apparent total clearance of the drug from plasma was 557 ml/h/kg (336–1221 ml/h/kg). Half-life of absorption into the central compartment was 0.6 h (0.4–2.6 h), half-life of elimination from the central compartment was 4.6 h (1.4–7.5 h).