Sparks of Inhalation Innovation

14
Upfront
A Soluble
Solution for
Drug Delivery
Could an ionic liquid–drug
system help solve drug
insolubility?
For a drug to work it must readily
dissolve in the body, but that’s easier said
than done. Poor solubility is a common
issue in drug development. How can this
be overcome? A team of scientists led
by Valentine Ananikov, Professor at the
Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian
Academy of Sciences, believe that ionic
liquids (ILs) could be the way forward.
Using salicylic acid as a model drug, the
researchers fused it with an ionic liquid
(1). The drug retained its activity in the
IL form, but dissolved more readily in
water compared with the parent drug.
“Ionic liquids consist of cations and
anions, and there are a huge number
of possible combinations of these ions
within an ionic liquid, which allows
for the ‘fine-tuning’ of their physical–
chemical properties,” says Ksenia
Egorova, a research scientist in the
Ananikov Lab.
The group tried to obtain non-toxic
ionic liquids by incorporating natural
molecules, such as amino acids, into
them. They found that the amino acidcontaining
ionic liquids demonstrated
higher biological activity than the
original imidazolium ionic liquids,
motivating the researchers to look
at other possible advantages of using
ionic liquids in medicine. We spoke to
Ananikov to learn more about the work.
What was the aim of your study?
Most drugs are solid substances, but
they have to function in solutions. Solid
substances tend to form several different