Improving solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs by protein-based strategy: A review

Poorly water-soluble drugs are frequently encountered and present a most challengeable difficulty in pharma-ceutical development. Poor solubility of drugs can lead to suboptimal bioavailability and therapeutic efficiency. Increasing efforts have been contributed to improve the solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs for better pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Among various solubility enhancement technologies, protein-based strategy to address poorly water-soluble drugs issues has special interests for natural advantages including versatile interactions between proteins and hydrophobic drugs, biocompatibility, biodegradation, and metabo-lization of proteins. The protein-drug formulations could be formed by covalent conjugations or noncovalent interactions to facilitate solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs. This review is to summarize the advances using proteins including plant proteins, mammalian proteins, and recombinant proteins, to enhance water solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs.

Automated summary

Poorly water-soluble drugs pose a significant challenge in pharmaceutical development due to their low solubility, which can result in reduced bioavailability and therapeutic effectiveness. Efforts have been made to improve the solubility of these drugs for better pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Protein-based strategies, which offer natural advantages such as versatile interactions with hydrophobic drugs, biocompatibility, biodegradation, and protein metabolism, have gained special interest. This review summarizes the advancements in using proteins, including plant proteins, mammalian proteins, and recombinant proteins, to enhance the water solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs.