Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Deep Eutectic Solvents as Novel Therapeutic Agents and Food Supplements (APIDES)

 Natural eutectic solvents (NADES) are the solvents of the future. The magic of NADES is that they make the impossible possible, drastically increasing the solubility of natural products and drugs, without the use of toxic organic solvents.

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THE PROBLEM THAT REPRESENTS THE TOPIC OF THE APIDES PROJECT

About 90% of newly discovered biologically active compounds are poorly soluble in water. The hydrophobicity of drugs and phytochemicals is the main cause of their poor bioavailability and reduced biological effect. Improving bioavailability is therefore one of the most important goals of the pharmaceutical and dietary supplement industries. As part of the APIDES project, a detailed examination of the solubility of selected natural medicinal substances from the group of polyphenols and alkaloids is planned. Natural eutectic mixtures (NADES) will be investigated as potential solvents for biologically active compounds within the APIDES project. The most famous NADES is honey. Although approximately 80% of honey consists of glucose and fructose, which are individually in a solid state, honey is still a liquid. The same is the case with other NADES systems, which are always in a liquid aggregate state. The project will develop a large number of NADES based on choline chloride (polar) and terpenoids (non-polar). By dissolving natural medicinal substances in NADES, natural formulations based on nutrients, vitamins and phytochemicals will be obtained, whereby the solubility of biologically active compounds will be increased hundreds, even thousands of times. The obtained formulations will be able to be used directly as supplements, for the enrichment of food products or as media for the solubilisation of drugs in the pharmaceutical industry.

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

Considering that the science of NADES is a young field that began to develop only ten years ago, until now there hasnʼt been systematic examination of NADES as agents for solubilisation compounds with biological potential. Therefore, the primary goal of the project is a detailed and systematic investigation of the solubility of the most important natural biologically active compounds, which are commercially available, as well as testing the biological activities of the obtained formulations (APIDES system). The obtained systems, which will show the greatest biological potential, could be used directly as supplements or as additions to functional food products.

To synthesize and characterize different hydrophilic and hydrophobic NADES systems;

To enhance the solubility of bioactive natural products in NADES systems;

To investigate the extraction efficiency of natural products in NADES systems.

Bioactivity guided investigation.

The main focus of APIDES project is:

-to select APIDES systems with the highest bioactivity and bioavailability

-to design ready to use products

APIDES METHODOLOGY

Within the APIDES project, a large number of polar and non-polar natural eutectic mixtures (NADES) will be designed. The method of obtaining polar NADES systems by microwave synthesis has meanwhile already been developed in our laboratory, while hydrophobic NADES will be synthesized by the ultrasonic method. It is planned to determine the solubility of selected polyphenolic compounds and alkaloids in these solvents. NADES systems themselves as well as formulations containing solubilized biologically active compounds (APIDES systems) will be tested by selected physicochemical and biological methods (antidiabetic, antimicrobial and antiproliferative activity). Research that will be conducted by examining the mentioned biological activities will enable the selection of systems with the greatest biological potential and will direct the further course of research towards them. In the second phase of the project, the bioavailability of selected compounds will be investigated using an in vitro digestion model. In order to further increase bioavailability, the formulations with the highest bioactive potential will be translated into the form of nanoparticles.

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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT FOR SERBIA AND FOR THE WORLD

From the very beginning, natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) attracted a lot of attention of the world scientific audience, which characterized them as the solvents of the 21st century. Considering that the ingredients of NADES are cheap, readily available and renewable raw materials of natural origin, these solvents are the latest offspring of green chemistry. The fact that the number of publications related to NADES is growing dramatically from year to year is the best indication of how significant this topic is at the global level. On the other hand, so far, the properties of NADES as extraction agents have been mostly investigated, while data on the solubility of natural products and drugs in these systems are very limited. APIDES will be among the first projects in the world investigating the solubility of biologically active compounds in NADES. For Serbian industry and companies, this will also be an excellent opportunity to use the possibility of implementing new green technology for the production of functional dietary products and cosmetics.

PROJECT INFORMATION

Project number: #GRANT No. 7731993 

Project is financed by: Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia– Program IDEAS
Realization period: January 2022 – January 2025.