Distribution of Protease Inhibitors in Lipid Emulsions: Gabexate Mesilate and Camostat Mesilate

Abstract

Gabexate mesilate (GM) and camostat mesilate (CM) are protease inhibitors used for the treatment of pancreatitis, and have been reported to show anticancer effects in vivo. Lipid emulsions (20% fractionated soybean oil) were investigated in terms of physicochemical interaction between the drugs and lipid emulsions as a possible drug carrier. The result showed that the drugs did not distribute in the oil phase but were adsorbed at the phospholipid interface of oil droplets. With increasing concentration of the drugs, the adsorption amount at the interface rose steeply to around 2.2×10⁻¹¹ mol/cm² for GM and 1.2×10⁻¹¹ mol/cm² for CM, respectively, followed by further adsorption deviated from the Langmuir adsorption manner after the inflection. To interpret this two-stage adsorption of the drugs, surface potential and fluorescence changes were examined in addition to thermodynamics for their interaction with the interfacial lipid layer. The primary adsorption was exothermic and was due to electrostatic interaction and van der Waals interaction between drug molecules and phospholipid molecules. Both acidic and neutral phospholipids in the lipid were involved in the adsorption of GM, while acidic phospholipids were mainly involved in the adsorption of CM. On the other hand, the secondary adsorption was endothermic and was entropy-driven most probably due to hydrophobic interaction for GM and CM in common, including peripheral penetration of drug molecules into the interfacial lipid layer.