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In Silico-Based Experiments on Mechanistic Interactions between Several Intestinal Permeation Enhancers with a Lipid Bilayer Model
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5563-2908
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9556-2695
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8418-4956
2022 (English)In: Molecular Pharmaceutics, ISSN 1543-8384, E-ISSN 1543-8392, Vol. 19, no 1, p. 124-137Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Oral administration of drugs is generally considered convenient and patient-friendly. However, oral administration of biological drugs exhibits low oral bioavailability (BA) due to enzymatic degradation and low intestinal absorption. A possible approach to circumvent the low BA of oral peptide drugs is to coformulate the drugs with permeation enhancers (PEs). PEs have been studied since the 1960s and are molecules that enhance the absorption of hydrophilic molecules with low permeability over the gastrointestinal epithelium. In this study, we investigated the impact of six PEs on the structural properties of a model membrane using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The PEs included were the sodium salts of the medium chain fatty acids laurate, caprate, and caprylate and the caprylate derivative SNAC─all with a negative charge─and neutral caprate and neutral sucrose monolaurate. Our results indicated that the PEs, once incorporated into the membrane, could induce membrane leakiness in a concentration-dependent manner. Our simulations suggest that a PE concentration of at least 70–100 mM is needed to strongly affect transcellular permeability. The increased aggregation propensity seen for neutral PEs might provide a molecular-level mechanism for the membrane disruptions seen at higher concentrations in vivo. The ability for neutral PEs to flip-flop across the lipid bilayer is also suggestive of possible intracellular modes of action other than increasing membrane fluidity. Taken together, our results indicate that MD simulations are useful for gaining insights relevant to the design of oral dosage forms based around permeability enhancer molecules.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Chemical Society American Chemical Society (ACS), 2022. Vol. 19, no 1, p. 124-137
National Category
Pharmaceutical Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-464187DOI: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.1c00689ISI: 000733765100001PubMedID: 34913341OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-464187DiVA, id: diva2:1627416
Available from: 2022-01-13 Created: 2022-01-13 Last updated: 2025-03-06Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Mechanistic Studies of Membrane Permeation of Peptides
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Mechanistic Studies of Membrane Permeation of Peptides
2025 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Oral administration of drugs is often preferred over injections due to its convenience, and therapeutic peptides offer significant advantages, including high activity, specificity, and low toxicity. However, oral delivery of peptide drugs presents significant challenges such as low permeability across the gastrointestinal epithelium. A promising strategy to improve bioavailability is co-formulating peptides with permeation enhancers (PEs) to facilitate transcellular transport. In this thesis, the interactions between peptides, PEs, and lipid membranes have been investigated using both the atomistic all-atom (AA) and coarse-grained (CG) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We investigated the interactions between PE and membrane using AA-MD. The PEs studied were different medium-chain fatty acids, such as laurate, caprate (C10), and caprylate, and the caprylate derivative SNAC all with a negative charge and neutral caprate and neutral sucrose monolaurate. Our results indicated that the PEs, once incorporated into the membrane, induce membrane leakiness in a concentration-dependent manner. The results also indicated that a PE concentration of at least 70−100 mM is needed to strongly affect transcellular permeability. We then studied the colloidal structures of different peptide therapeutics in the presence and absence of two different PEs, C10 and SNAC and bile salt, taurocholate. The simulations provided insights into molecular-level interactions, highlighting the specific contacts between peptide residues responsible for aggregation and the interactions between peptide residues and permeability enhancers/taurocholates that are crucial within the mixed colloids. Our simulations also showed that the PEs can promote the release of hydrophobic peptides while restrict the release of water-soluble peptides. Finally, we also performed umbrella sampling simulations to calculate the effective permeability coefficients (Peff) for three different peptides: octreotide, desmopressin, and triptorelin, using CG-MD in the presence of C10 and SNAC in the membrane. The results show that C10 can increase the Peff, of the peptides included in orders of magnitude in a concentration-dependent manner, compared to the peptide systems without C10 present. These molecular-level insights can guide the design of improved permeability enhancer-based dosage forms, allowing for selecting the best possible peptide-PE combination and precise control of peptide release profiles near the intended absorption site. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2025. p. 92
Series
Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Pharmacy, ISSN 1651-6192 ; 373
Keywords
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, Umbrella sampling (US) simulations, membrane permeation, drug delivery, oral peptide therapeutics, peptide permeability, permeation enhancers, salcaprozate sodium (SNAC), capric acid (C10)
National Category
Pharmaceutical Sciences
Research subject
Pharmaceutical Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-552025 (URN)978-91-513-2407-4 (ISBN)
Public defence
2025-04-24, A1:107a, BMC, Husargatan 3, 75123, Uppsala, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2025-04-03 Created: 2025-03-06 Last updated: 2025-04-03

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Kneiszl, Rosita C.Hossain, Md ShakhawathLarsson, Per

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