Biocompatible ionic liquid formulations for increasing therapeutic success rate
Talia A. SHMOOL1, Jason P. HALLETT1
1Imperial College London, Department of Chemical Engineering, London, United Kingdom
Biocompatible ionic liquid formulations for increasing therapeutic success rate
Talia A. Shmool, Jason P. Hallett
Over 96% of drug development fails. This is largely due to the inherently high aggregation propensity of therapeutics in aqueous solutions, promoting the loss of therapeutic function. The focus of this research is to demonstrate a biocompatible ionic liquid (IL)-based approach for improving the thermal and structural stability of protein therapeutics. To date, this strategy enabled: (i) tuning the thermoresponsive properties of hydrogels for local and sustained delivery; (ii) enhancing the targeted delivery of protein therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier in vivo; and (iii) extending the shelf life of RNA-based vaccines at elevated temperatures to eliminate the costly cold chain. Furthermore, computational studies revealed insight into protein aggregation processes and the stabilisation mechanisms by biocompatible IL formulations (Shmool et al. JACS Au 2022), which will be shown. Ultimately, this IL-based strategy has direct potential industrial applications and impact to the health sector, to improve drug development success.