The study of intestinal absorption and biodistribution in vivo of proton pump inhibitors

The major therapeutic strategy for acid-related gastrointestinal diseases in clinic is to reduce the excretion of gastric acid by oral administration of proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs). However, it is quite a challenge to study the oral absorption behaviors of PPIs considering their extreme instability under gastrointestinal environment. As a result, little information has been reported on PPI oral absorption so far, hindering the further development of PPI-contained oral preparations. Here, we first investigated the degradation rate of three representative PPIs, including ilaprazole, ilaprazole sodium and rabeprazole sodium. Then a modified in situ intestine absorption method in rat was established: through the temperature control by the heat exchangers, the perfusate was kept at physiological temperature only when passing through the intestine while it was maintained at 4 °C outside the intestine. Therefore PPIs could maintained sufficiently high stability under proper temperature control. Our data demonstrated that both ilaprazole and ilaprazole sodium exhibited significantly higher absorption efficiency than rabeprazole sodium did through the comparison of their apparent permeability coefficients and steady-state plasma concentrations after perfusion in the duodenum, jejunum, ileum and colon, mainly attributing to their more suitable oil-water partition coefficient. The duodenum could be the best site for the oral absorption of PPIs. Ilaprazole outperformed its sodium salt form with its stable absorption behavior in tested four intestinal segments. Furthermore, after intravenous or oral administration, ilaprazole exhibited a longer residence time and a higher accumulation in the stomach than in most of other tissues/organs. However, it was also found that the accumulation was heterogeneous and mainly located in mucosa cells of the stomach. Our further study indicated that there was no significant difference on the oral absorption efficiency of ilaprazole between female and male rats but ilaprazole underwent a faster metabolism in male rats after oral absorption. Our study provided a valuable guidance for the design of oral formulation and the optimization of PPI-contained formulations.