Investigating food ingredient-drug interactions in model food systems

In response to current consumer food trends (e.g. high dietary fibre, high protein, low fat, low sugar, high charcoal …) new food ingredients are being developed and used in food manufacturing to enable the food industry to minimise the negative impacts of reformulation on final food products. Food ingredients that are used to mimic fat or sugar properties in foods (i.e. fat or sugar replacers) may have polypeptide, polysaccharide or similar structures and can be used in large quantities in food systems. New food ingredients may have low to high molecular weights, diverse molecular charges, different surface areas and different porosity levels. Hence extensive usage of these food ingredients may generate the gastrointestinal conditions that could affect drug-food compounds interactions. As a result, this may impact the bioavailability of drugs that may require additional drug administration strategies. Assessment of the food-drug interactions has been the focus of many researchers and included in vitro, in silico and in vivo methods. In particular, the use of in vitro dissolution apparatus to evaluate such food-drug interactions is of significant importance due to its simplicity, standardised approach and low requirements.

This project is aiming to study interactions between selected oral drugs and some food ingredients in an in vitro model when food ingredients will be exposed to drugs in an automatic dissolution system. The drug release and drug and food ingredients interactions will be investigated and modelled. Specific objectives include investigating:

i. drugs-food ingredients interactions in an in vitro model system including drug potency and stability.
ii. the effect of food ingredients on the kinetics of drug release in such in vitro system.
iii. Underpinning molecular structure-interaction relationship of food ingredients and drugs.