Estimation of the increase in solubility of drugs as a function of bile salt concentration

The objective of this study was to develop a model to predict the extent to which bile salts can enhance the solubility of a drug, based on the physicochemical properties of the compound. The ability to predict bile salt solubilization of poorly soluble drugs would be a key component in determining which drugs will exhibit fed vs. fasted differences in drug absorption.

A correlation between the logarithm of the octanol/water partition coefficient [log P] of six steroidal compounds and their solubilities in the presence of various concentrations of sodium taurocholate at 37 degrees C, log [SR] = 2.234 + 0.606 log [P] (r2 = 0.987) where SR is the ratio of the stabilization capacity of the bile salt to the solubilization capacity of water for the drug, was used to predict the solubility of the compounds in presence of sodium taurocholate were then measured.

The predicted solubilities were within 10% of the experimentally observed solubilities for griseofulvin, cyclosporin A and pentazocine. The model overpredicted the solubility of phenytoin and diazepam in 15 mM sodium taurocholate solution by a factor of 1.33 and 1.62 respectively.

The expected increase in solubility as a function of bile salt concentration can be estimated on the basis of the partition coefficient and aqueous solubility of the compound.