Efficient Colonic Delivery

Efficient and reliable delivery of drugs to the colon has not been achieved yet. Nevertheless, colonic delivery is needed for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, a malady with increasing incidence. The difficulty in consistent colonic delivery is caused by the individual and circumstantial variability of the human digestive tract (pH, residence times, water content, food intake, volumes, peristaltic movement, etc.).

We (Prof. Imanidis and Prof. Lipps) have proposed to use xyloglucan, which is specifically degraded by the colonic microbiome. The specific degradation of xyloglucan leads to a release of drugs embedded in the tablet matrix in the colon only. The specific release could be demonstrated by in vitro dissolution tests simulating the human digestive apparatus and later in a preclinical study with pigs (Doggwiler et al., 2024, 2023a, 2023b).

Funded by FreeNovation (Novartis)
Funded by Bridge (Schweizer Nationalfond/Innosuisse)

Doggwiler, V., Lanz, M., Paredes, V., Lipps, G., Imanidis, G., 2023a. Tablet formulation with dual control concept for efficient colonic drug delivery. Int. J. Pharm. 631, 122499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2022.122499
Doggwiler, V., Puorger, C., Paredes, V., Lanz, M., Nuss, K.M., Lipps, G., Imanidis, G., 2023b. Efficient colonic drug delivery in domes-tic pigs employing a tablet formulation with dual control concept. J. Controlled Release 358, 420–438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2023.04.047
Doggwiler, V., Lanz, M., Lipps, G., Imanidis, G., 2024. Mechanistic Investigation of Enzyme Triggered Release from a Xy-loglucan Matrix Tablet for Controlled Colonic Drug Delivery. J. Pharm. Sci. S0022-3549(24)00194–1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xphs.2024.05.020