Butyrate prodrug with increased oral bioavailability for autoimmune diseases

An odorless, flavorless, esterified L-serine conjugate of sodium butyrate could help treat autoimmune conditions like arthritis and MS by increasing the oral bioavailability and systemic uptake of the metabolite, which promotes immunosuppressive functions in Tregs and myeloid cells via HDAC inhibition and G-protein coupled receptor signaling.

In mice, oral delivery of O-butyryl-l-serine resulted in butyrate levels in plasma, spinal cord, liver, brain, and other organs ranging from 0.5-50 µg/g, several fold higher than oral delivery of un-conjugated sodium butyrate, which resulted in undetectable or nearly undetectable butyrate levels in all organs tested. ...