Epiisopiloturine nanoencapsulation improve its oral bioavailability in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are a group of diseases represented mainly by Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), whose current treatments are associated with a range of side effects, bringing forth the need to study therapeutic alternatives. In this context, studies carried out with the alkaloid epiisopiloturine have proven its anti- inflammatory activity, including in the course of inflammatory bowel diseases, yet administered intraperitoneally. However, there is a great challenge in working with this molecule due to its insolubility in aqueous media and its low absorption after oral administration, requiring the use of pharmacotechnical strategies to improve the biopharmaceutical profile of the molecule to enable its formulation aimed at the treatment of ulcerative colitis. An alternative is the use of biotechnology in order to improve these characteristics. Our hypothesis suggests that the biotechnological development of a nanostructured formulation containing the alkaloid epiisopiloturine improves its plasma bioavailability after oral administration, attenuating the inflammatory process in the course of inflammatory bowel diseases. We believe that nanoencapsulation of epiisopiloturine for the treatment of IBDs will enable its administration orally, thus improving its bioavailability when administered by this route. Since the epiisopiloturine molecule is degraded orally, with its effect diminished during inflammatory bowel diseases, the nanoformulation containing this alkaloid is a good alternative to the challenges encountered in this route of administration.