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SNAC for Enhanced Oral Bioavailability: An Updated Review

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Abstract 

The delivery of proteins and peptides via an oral route poses numerous challenges to improve the oral bioavailability and patient compliance. To overcome these challenges, as well as to improve the permeation of proteins and peptides via intestinal mucosa, several chemicals have been studied such as surfactants, fatty acids, bile salts, pH modifiers, and chelating agents, amongst these medium chain fatty acid like C10 (sodium caprate) and Sodium N-[8-(2-hydroxybenzoyl) amino] caprylate (SNAC) and its derivatives that have been well studied from a clinical perspective. This current review enumerates the challenges involved in protein and peptide delivery via the oral route, i.e., non-invasive routes of protein and peptide administration. This review also covers the chemistry behind SNAC and toxicity as well as mechanisms to enhance the oral delivery of clinically proven molecules like simaglutide and other small molecules under clinical development, as well as other permeation enhancers for efficient delivery of proteins and peptides.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Biomedical Research, Population Council, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Nagavendra Kommineni & Pavimol Angsantikul

  2. Department of Pharmaceutics, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Nagavendra Kommineni, Vaskuri G S Sainaga Jyothi, Saka Raju & Wahid Khan

  3. Department of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, 38677, USA

    Arun Butreddy

  4. School of Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hadassah Medical Center, Ein Kerem Campus, 91120, Jerusalem, Israel

    Tovi Shapira & Abraham J. Domb

  5. Natco Research Centre, NATCO Pharma Limited, Hyderabad, 500018, India

    Wahid Khan

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Kommineni, N., Sainaga Jyothi, V.G., Butreddy, A. et al. SNAC for Enhanced Oral Bioavailability: An Updated Review. Pharm Res 40, 633–650 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11095-022-03459-9

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