Cassette dosing pharmacokinetic studies for evaluation of ophthalmic drugs for posterior ocular diseases

A pharmacokinetic study of a combination of beta adrenoreceptor antagonists - in the isolated perfused ovine eye

The treatment of posterior eye diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, is of growing interest as the number of people affected by these conditions continues to rise. This study utilises the methods of cassette dosing and the perfused ovine eye model - to reduce animal usage and therefore animal time - to show that for a series of beta adrenoreceptor antagonists, lipophilicity is a key physicochemical property that governs drug distribution within the eye. Following intravitreal injection, lipophilic beta adrenoreceptor antagonists penetrate to the posterior eye, where they bind to the choroid and reside in the retina at greater concentrations than more hydrophilic beta adrenoreceptor antagonists, which preferentially penetrate to the anterior eye.

Combined use of in vitro phototoxic assessments and cassette dosing pharmacokinetic study for phototoxicity characterization of fluoroquinolones

The present study aimed to develop an effective screening strategy to predict in vivo phototoxicity of multiple compounds by combined use of in vitro phototoxicity assessments and cassette dosing pharmacokinetic (PK) studies. Photochemical properties of six fluoroquinolones (FQs) were evaluated by UV spectral and reactive oxygen species (ROS) assays, and phototoxic potentials of FQs were also assessed using 3T3 neutral red uptake phototoxicity test (3T3 NRU PT) and intercalator-based photogenotoxicity (IBP) assay. Cassette dosing pharmacokinetics on FQs was conducted for calculating PK parameters and dermal distribution. All the FQs exhibited potent UV/VIS absorption and ROS generation under light exposure, suggesting potent photosensitivity of FQs. In vitro phototoxic risks of some FQs were also elucidated by 3T3 NRU PT and IBP assay. Decision matrix for phototoxicity prediction was built upon these in vitro data, taken together with outcomes from cassette dosing PK studies. According to the decision matrix, most FQs were deduced to be phototoxic, although gatifloxacin was found to be less phototoxic. These findings were in agreement with clinical observations. Combined use of in vitro photobiochemical and cassette dosing PK data will be useful for predicting in vivo phototoxic potentials of drug candidates with high productivity and reliability.

Development of novel in silico model to predict corneal permeability for congeneric drugs: a QSPR approach

This study was undertaken to determine in vivo permeability coefficients for fluoroquinolones and to assess its correlation with the permeability derived using reported models in the literature. Further, the aim was to develop novel QSPR model to predict corneal permeability for fluoroquinolones and test its suitability on other training sets. The in vivo permeability coefficient was determined using cassette dosing (N-in-One) approach for nine fluoroquinolones (norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, lomefloxacin, ofloxacin, levofloxacin, sparfloxacin, pefloxacin, gatifloxacin, and moxifloxacin) in rabbits. The correlation between corneal permeability derived using in vivo studies with that derived from reported models was determined. Novel QSPR-based model was developed using in vivo corneal permeability along with other molecular descriptors. The suitability of developed model was tested on β-blockers (n = 15). The model showed better prediction of corneal permeability for fluoroquinolones (r(2) > 0.9) as well as β-blockers (r(2) > 0.6). The newly developed QSPR model based upon in vivo generated data was found suitable to predict corneal permeability for fluoroquinolones as well as other sets of compounds.

Utilization of in vitro Caco-2 permeability and liver microsomal half-life screens in discovering BMS-488043, a novel HIV-1 attachment inhibitor with improved pharmacokinetic properties

Optimizing pharmacokinetic properties to improve oral exposure is a common theme in modern drug discovery. In the present work, in vitro Caco-2 permeability and microsomal half-life screens were utilized in an effort to guide the structure-activity relationship in order to improve the pharmacokinetic properties of novel HIV-1 attachment inhibitors. The relevance of the in vitro screens to in vivo pharmacokinetic properties was first demonstrated with a number of program compounds at the early stage of lead optimization. The Caco-2 permeability, tested at 200 microM, was quantitatively predictive of in vivo oral absorption, with complete absorption occurring at a Caco-2 permeability of 100 nm/s or higher. The liver microsomal half-life screen, conducted at 1 microM substrate concentration, can readily differentiate low-, intermediate-, and high-clearance compounds in rats, with a nearly 1:1 correlation in 12 out of 13 program compounds tested. Among the >100 compounds evaluated, BMS-488043 emerged as a lead, exhibiting a Caco-2 permeability of 178 nm/s and a microsomal half-life predictive of a low clearance (4 mL/min/kg) in humans. These in vitro characteristics translated well to the in vivo setting. The oral bioavailability of BMS-488043 in rats, dogs, and monkeys was 90%, 57%, and 60%, respectively. The clearance was low in all three species tested, with a terminal half-life ranging from 2.4 to 4.7 h. Furthermore, the oral exposure of BMS-488043 was significantly improved (6- to 12-fold in rats and monkeys) compared to the prototype compound BMS-378806 that had a suboptimal Caco-2 permeability (51 nm/s) and microsomal half-life. More importantly, the improvements in preclinical pharmacokinetics translated well to humans, leading to a >15-fold increase in the human oral exposure of BMS-488043 than BMS-378806 and enabling a clinical proof-of-concept for this novel class of anti-HIV agents. The current studies demonstrated the valuable role of in vitro ADME screens in improving oral pharmacokinetics at the lead optimization stage.

Influence of lipophilicity on drug partitioning into sclera, choroid-retinal pigment epithelium, retina, trabecular meshwork, and optic nerve

In vitro bovine eye tissue/phosphate-buffered saline, pH 7.4, partition coefficients (Kt:b), in vitro binding to natural melanin, and in vivo delivery at 1 h after posterior subconjunctival injection in Brown Norway rats were determined for eight beta-blockers. The Kt:b was in the order intact tissue, dry weight method >or= intact tissue, wet weight method corrected for tissue water and drug in tissue water >> intact tissue, wet weight method > homogenized tissue. In intact tissue methods, Kt:b followed the order choroid-retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) > trabecular meshwork > retina > sclera approximately optic nerve; propranolol > betaxolol > pindolol approximately timolol approximately metoprolol > sotalol approximately atenolol approximately nadolol. Intact tissue, wet weight log (Kt:b) correlated positively with log D for all tissues (R(2) of 0.7-0.9). Log (melanin binding capacity) correlated positively with choroid-RPE log (Kt:b) (R(2) of 0.5). With an increase in concentration, Kt:b decreased in trabecular meshwork for all beta-blockers and for some lipophilic beta-blockers in choroid-RPE and sclera. With an increase in drug lipophilicity, in vivo tissue distribution increased in choroid-RPE, iris-ciliary body, sclera, and cornea but exhibited a declining trend in retina, vitreous, and lens. In vitro bovine intact tissue, wet weight Kt:b correlated positively with rat in vivo tissue/vitreous humor distribution for sclera, choroid-RPE, and retina (R(2) of 0.985-0.993). In vitro tissue partition coefficients might be useful in predicting in vivo drug distribution after trans-scleral delivery. Less lipophilic solutes exhibiting limited nonproductive binding in choroid-RPE might exhibit greater trans-scleral delivery to the retina and vitreous.

Cassette analysis of eight beta-blockers in bovine eye sclera, choroid-RPE, retina, and vitreous by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A simple, selective, and sensitive LC-MS/MS method was developed for the simultaneous extraction and determination of eight beta-blockers (atenolol, sotalol, nadolol, pindolol, timolol, metoprolol, betaxolol and propranolol) in various bovine eye tissues including sclera, choroid-RPE, retina, and vitreous. The analytes were extracted by liquid-liquid extraction after samples were alkalinized with 2% NaOH solution in water. The chromatographic separation was performed on a Hypersil-ODS C18 column (100 mm x 2.1 mm, 3.9 microm) using a gradient mixture of (A) 5 mM ammonium formate in water (pH 3.5 adjusted with formic acid) and (B) acetonitrile:methanol (75:25) containing 0.02% triethyl amine (pH 4.0; adjusted with formic acid) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.4 ml/min. The compounds were ionized in the positive electrospray ionization (ESI) mode and detected in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The average recoveries in all four eye tissues for all beta-blockers were >82%, except for sotalol (>51%). The matrix effect for beta-blockers ranged from 81 to 110% in the four eye tissues. This analytical method was validated and applied successfully for simultaneous quantification of the beta-blockers in sclera after tissue exposure using cassette dosing method. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 10-2000 ng/ml for all analytes, with the correlation coefficient >0.996. Intra-day and inter-day precision (% CV) was less than 15%, and accuracy ranged from 85 to 110% for all analytes. Scleral uptake was the lowest for sotalol and atenolol, two hydrophilic beta-blockers, and the highest for propranolol, a lipophilic beta-blocker.