Biocatalytic Approach for Direct Esterification of Ibuprofen with Sorbitol in Biphasic Media

• Main Authors: Federico Zappaterra, Maria Elena Maldonado Rodriguez, Daniela Summa, Bruno Semeraro, Stefania Costa, Elena Tamburini
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: ibuprofen; sorbitol; esterification; porcine pancreas lipase; prodrug
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/6/3066

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.