GlycoCaged N-heterocycles for improved treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is increasing in Canada and world-wide. IBD is painful and debilitating. In addition to significantly impacting quality-of-life, IBD is a major economic burden on the Canadian health care system. Current IBD treatment uses anti-inflammatory drugs, which can cause harmful off-target side effects. Therefore, the holy grail is to precisely target IBD drugs to sites of inflammation to improve patient outcomes.

Our team has developed a new strategy to release drugs specifically in the lower gastrointestinal tract, which we call GlycoCage Technology. This approach combines the power of synthetic carbohydrate chemistry with the unique ability of the human gut microbiota to break-down the complex carbohydrates in dietary fiber. GlycoCaged drugs are taken orally and are protected from absorption in the stomach; they are released at the location of disease by specific enzymes made by our gut bacteria.

Previous funding enabled us to do key experiments demonstrating the effectiveness of our GlycoCage technology using a powerful corticosteroid, dexamethasone. We found that we could use lower doses of drugs and eliminate side effects through this approach. In our current project, we will investigate the benefits of GlycoCaging important drug classes that are being used to treat IBD. In the long-run, we aim to establish GlycoCage Technology as a new treatment option to improve current therapies for people with IBD.