Abstract
BackgroundAcylation of peptide drugs with fatty acid chains has proven beneficial for prolonging systemic circulation as well as increasing enzymatic stability without disrupting biological potency. Acylation has furthermore been shown to increase interactions with the lipid membranes of mammalian cells. The extent to which such interactions hinder or benefit delivery of acylated peptide drugs across cellular barriers such as the intestinal epithelia is currently unknown. The present study investigates the effect of acylating peptide drugs from a drug delivery perspective.PurposeWe hypothesize that the membrane interaction is an important parameter for intestinal translocation, which may be used to optimize the acylation chain length for intestinal permeation. This work aims to characterize acylated analogues of the intestinotrophic Glucagon-like peptide-2 by systematically increasing acyl chain length, in order to elucidate its influence on membrane interaction and intestinal cell translocation in vitro.ResultsPeptide self-association and binding to both model lipid and cell membranes was found to increase gradually with acyl chain length, whereas translocation across Caco-2 cells depended non-linearly on chain length. Short and medium acyl chains increased translocation compared to the native peptide, but long chain acylation displayed no improvement in translocation. Co-administration of a paracellular absorption enhancer was found to increase translocation irrespective of acyl chain length, whereas a transcellular enhancer displayed increased synergy with the long chain acylation.ConclusionsThese results show that membrane interactions play a prominent role during intestinal translocation of an acylated peptide. Acylation benefits permeation for shorter and medium chains due to increased membrane interactions, however, for longer chains insertion in the membrane becomes dominant and hinders translocation, i.e. the peptides get ‘stuck’ in the cell membrane. Applying a transcellular absorption enhancer increases the dynamics of membrane insertion and detachment by fluidizing the membrane, thus facilitating its effects primarily on membrane associated peptides.
Highlights
Acylation of peptides with fatty acids is a naturally occurring post-translational modification, which has inspired alteration of therapeutic peptides for drug delivery
Short and medium acyl chains increased translocation compared to the native peptide, but long chain acylation displayed no improvement in translocation
Co-administration of a paracellular absorption enhancer was found to increase translocation irrespective of acyl chain length, whereas a transcellular enhancer displayed increased synergy with the long chain acylation. These results show that membrane interactions play a prominent role during intestinal translocation of an acylated peptide
Summary
Acylation of peptides with fatty acids is a naturally occurring post-translational modification, which has inspired alteration of therapeutic peptides for drug delivery. The increased enzymatic stability of acylated peptides is beneficial for oral administration, due to the highly metabolic environment in the stomach and intestine [9]. Another requirement for oral drug delivery is adequate absorption through the intestinal epithelial barrier, which is a major challenge for large, hydrophillic peptide drugs [10]. Acylation of peptide drugs with fatty acid chains has proven beneficial for prolonging systemic circulation as well as increasing enzymatic stability without disrupting biological potency. This work aims to characterize acylated analogues of the intestinotrophic Glucagon-like peptide-2 by systematically increasing acyl chain length, in order to elucidate its influence on membrane interaction and intestinal cell translocation in vitro
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