Glycoconjugate-caged drugs offer better way to treat inflammatory bowel disease

A novel targeted drug delivery system could help improve the efficacy of medicines for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) by ensuring they are released directly to the affected area of the gut.

Medicines such as corticosteroids are generally administered orally or intravenously for conditions like IBD, but this often leads to rapid uptake in the stomach and upper intestine and targeted delivery to the lower intestine remains a long-standing challenge. Higher doses are prescribed to ensure enough of the drug reaches the affected area, however this brings with it an increased risk of serious side effects such as high blood pressure and osteoporosis.