Triglyceride-mimetic prodrugs of scutellarin enhance oral bioavailability by promoting intestinal lymphatic transport and avoiding first-pass metabolism.

The intestinal capillary pathway is the most common way to absorb oral drugs, but for drugs with poor solubility and permeability and high first-pass metabolism, this pathway is very inefficient. Although intestinal lymphatic transport of lipophilic drugs or prodrugs is a promising strategy to improve the oral delivery efficiency of these drugs. The prodrug strategy for modifying compounds with Log P  > 5 to promote intestinal lymphatic transport is a common approach. However, transport of poor liposoluble compounds (Log P  < 0) through intestinal lymph has not been reported. Herein, triglyceride-mimetic prodrugs of scutellarin were designed and synthesized to promote intestinal lymphatic transport and increase oral bioavailability. Lymphatic transport and pharmacokinetic experiments showed that two prodrugs did promote intestinal lymphatic transport of scutellarin and the relative oral bioavailability was 2.24- and 2.45-fold of scutellarin, respectively. In summary, triglyceride-mimetic prodrugs strategy was used for the first time to study intestinal lymphatic transport of scutellarin with Log P  < 0, which could further broaden the application range of drugs to improve oral bioavailability with the assistance of intestinal lymphatic transport.