Author(s)

Andrea Marchegiani^1*, Ferdinando Nicoletti^2,3, Maria Rosaria Romano², Decio Capobianco⁴, Ciro Costagliola⁵, Carlotta Marini¹, Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera⁶, Roberto Ciccocioppo⁷, Andrea Spaterna¹

¹School of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy.
²IRCCS Neuromed, Pozzilli, Italy.
³Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
⁴Glaucoma Service, Ophthalmic Outpatients Department, ASL NA1 and CE, Naples, Italy.
⁵Department of Medicine and Health Sciences “V. Tiberio”, University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy.
⁶Department of Economics and Statistics, DISES, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy.
⁷School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health Products, University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy.

Background: Citicoline and homotaurine are compounds with a potent neuroprotective activity and they have been administered for many years in the treatment of numerous neurodegenerative and ophthalmological diseases, including glaucoma. Initially available only as liquid form, through parenteral route, nowadays citicoline can be administered also as tablet but no data on bioavailability of these different forms are available. In the present study, pharmacokinetics of citicoline in tablet versus vials, each at the therapeutic dose of 500 mg, in addition to 50 mg of homotaurine was investigated. Materials and methods: Ten mixed breed dogs received a single dose of 50 mg oral homotaurine and 500 mg citicoline in tablet and vials with the same dose were administered after a seven days wash-out period. Parameters assessed for citicoline metabolites (cytidine, uridine and choline) were AUC_0−t, C_max and T_max. Results: Citicoline bioavailability appeared to be slightly higher for the tablet compared to the vial formulation. Cytidine is equivalent in absorption dynamics both for tablet and liquid form; uridine for tablet reaches its maximum and is reabsorbed more quickly while choline for the liquid form reaches the maximum first and is reabsorbed more quickly. Conclusions: Citicoline in tablet and liquid formulation have pharmacokinetic properties leading to a very similar bioavailability.

Citicoline, Homotaurine, Bioavailability, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Ophthalmological Diseases, Glaucoma

Marchegiani, A. , Nicoletti, F. , Romano, M. , Capobianco, D. , Costagliola, C. , Marini, C. , Lavadera, G. , Ciccocioppo, R. and Spaterna, A. (2019) Comparative Oral Absorption of Different Citicoline and Homotaurine Formulations: A Single-Dose, Two-Period Crossover Trial in the Dog. Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering, 12, 368-376. doi: 10.4236/jbise.2019.127028.