Papain-cyclodextrin complexes as an intestinal permeation enhancer: Permeability and in vitro safety evaluation

Oral drug delivery is the main route for drugs administration. However, some drugs have poor permeability across the intestinal barrier. Papain has been widely used in pharmaceutical applications due to its debridement properties and the ability to promote skin permeation of drugs. It is known that papain complexation with cyclodextrins improves its biological stability. In this paper, the ability of the native papain-cyclodextrin complexes is shown be an oral permeation enhancer to furosemide, using a Caco-2 monolayer system to evaluate drug permeability and apparent permeability coefficient. Analysis of the in vitro cytotoxicity over CHO–K1, Hep G2 and Caco-2 cell lines and genotoxicity over CHO–K1 and Hep G2 cell lines were also performed. Papain-cyclodextrins complexes did not show any cytotoxicity above 31 μg/mL. No significant genotoxic damage was observed. Papain and cyclodextrin complexes induced almost 2.5-fold increase in furosemide permeation compared to controls, and maintenance of the paracellular integrity of the Caco-2 cells monolayer was confirmed. The papain complexes may be safely applied in pharmaceutical formulations, not only as a therapeutic agent but also as a strategic pharmaceutical adjuvant, promoting permeation of low oral permeability drugs.