Zappaterra F, Rodriguez MEM, Summa D, Semeraro B, Costa S, Tamburini E. Biocatalytic Approach for Direct Esterification of Ibuprofen with Sorbitol in Biphasic Media.
Int J Mol Sci 2021;
22:3066. [PMID:
33802769 PMCID:
PMC8002397 DOI:
10.3390/ijms22063066]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2021] [Revised: 03/13/2021] [Accepted: 03/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) introduced in the 1960s and widely used as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic. In its acid form, the solubility of 21 mg/L greatly limits its bioavailability. Since the bioavailability of a drug product plays a critical role in the design of oral administration dosage, this study investigated the enzymatic esterification of ibuprofen as a strategy for hydrophilization. This work proposes an enzymatic strategy for the covalent attack of highly hydrophilic molecules using acidic functions of commercially available bioactive compounds. The poorly water-soluble drug ibuprofen was esterified in a hexane/water biphasic system by direct esterification with sorbitol using the cheap biocatalyst porcine pancreas lipase (PPL), which demonstrated itself to be a suitable enzyme for the effective production of the IBU-sorbitol ester. This work reports the optimization of the esterification reaction.
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