Arginine-assisted solubilization system for drug substances: solubility experiment and simulation.

The poor aqueous solubility of drug substances hampers their broader applications. This paper describes a de novo strategy to increase the aqueous solubility of drug substances using an arginine-assisted solubilization system (AASS) with alkyl gallates as model drug substances. Solubility experiments of alkyl gallates showed that arginine greatly increases the aqueous solubility of different alkyl gallates, whose aqueous solubilities differ widely. In contrast, lysine showed marginal effects on alkyl gallates solubility. Molecular dynamic simulation indicated a greater interaction of arginine with alkyl gallates than that of lysine, which reflects favorable interaction between the guanidinium group of arginine and the aromatic ring of alkyl gallates. Such interaction apparently disrupts association of alkyl gallate molecules, leading to solubilization. These results indicate AASS as a promising approach to solubilize poorly soluble drug substances containing aromatic ring structures.