Ionic liquids composed of lactic acid and trometamol enhance the oral absorption of 10 kDa dextran

Haruka Takata – Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University; Ryo Hayashi – Student, Department of Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University; Haruka Yamamoto – Student, Tokushima University; Takashi Nakae – Researcher, MEDRx Co., Ltd.; Noboru Tatsumi – Researcher, MEDRx Co., Ltd.; Hidetoshi Hamamoto – Researcher, MEDRx Co., Ltd.; Shingo Kobayashi – Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University; Hidenori Ando – Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University; Tatsuhiro Ishida – Professor, Department of Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University

Introduction: Ionic liquids (ILs) are organic salts with melting points below 100℃. Previously, our IL-based system enhanced the skin permeation of Wilm’s tumor-1 peptide (1.1 kDa), leading to potent antitumor immune responses and tumor suppression in vivo [1]. Hence, we hypothesized that ILs are useful to improve the intestinal absorption of mid-sized molecules. In this study, to prove our concept, we prepared several ionic liquids and studied their enhancing effect on the intestinal absorption of a model compound, FITC-labeled dextran (FD, 10 kDa), in mice following a single oral administration.