Prediction of bioavailability for drugs with a high first-pass effect using oral clearance data

Identification of N-(1H-pyrazol-4-yl)carboxamide inhibitors of interleukin-1 receptor associated kinase 4: Bicyclic core modifications

IRAK4 plays a critical role in the IL-1R and TLR signalling, and selective inhibition of the kinase activity of the protein represents an attractive target for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. A series of permeable N-(1H-pyrazol-4-yl)carboxamides was developed by introducing lipophilic bicyclic cores in place of the polar pyrazolopyrimidine core of 5-amino-N-(1H-pyrazol-4-yl)pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine-3-carboxamides. Replacement of the pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine core with the pyrrolo[2,1-f][1,2,4]triazine, the pyrrolo[1,2-b]pyridazine, and thieno[2,3-b]pyrazine cores guided by cLogD led to the identification of highly permeable IRAK4 inhibitors with excellent potency and kinase selectivity.

A prediction model for oral bioavailability of drugs using physicochemical properties by support vector machine

OBJECTIVE

A computational model for predicting oral bioavailability is very important both in the early stage of drug discovery to select the promising compounds for further optimizations and in later stage to identify candidates for clinical trials. In present study, we propose a support vector machine (SVM)-based kernel learning approach carried out at a set of 511 chemically diverse compounds with known oral bioavailability values.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

For each drug, 12 descriptors were calculated. The selection of optimal hyper-plane parameters was performed with 384 training set data and the prediction efficiency of proposed classifier was tested on 127 test set data.

RESULTS

The overall prediction efficiency for the test set came out to be 96.85%. Youden's index and Matthew correlation index were found to be 0.929 and 0.909, respectively. The area under receiver operating curve (ROC) was found to be 0.943 with standard error 0.0253.

CONCLUSION

The prediction model suggests that while considering chemoinformatics approaches into account, SVM-based prediction of oral bioavailability can be a significantly important tool for drug development and discovery at a preliminary level.

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of R- and S-gallopamil during multiple dosing

AIMS

Using a stable isotope technique we investigated the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of gallopamil after administration of 50 mg pseudoracemic gallopamil every 12 h for 7 doses (72 h).

METHODS

Six male healthy volunteers were studied. After the seventh dose the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics were assessed. Serum levels of gallopamil were measured by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Effects of gallopamil were measured by ECG recording.

RESULTS

The apparent oral clearances (R: 4.8 l min-1 (95% CI: 2.9-6.8); S: 5.5 l min-1 (95% CI: 2.5-8.5)) and half-lives (R: 6.2 h; S: 7.2 h) of R- and S-gallopamil were similar (P >0.05). The serum protein binding (fu R: 0.035 (95% CI: 0.026-0. 045); S: 0.051 (95% CI: 0.033-0.069)) and the renal elimination (% of dose R: 0.49%; S: 0.71%) were enantioselective. Gallopamil had a potent effect on the PR interval (% prolongation 35.7% (95% CI: 14. 0-57.3)). No changes in other electrocardiographic or cardiovascular parameters were observed.

CONCLUSIONS

The pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of the racemic drug gallopamil are not stereoselective at steady-state and are therefore not substantially altered compared with the single dose administration of gallopamil.

Chronopharmacology of intravenous and oral modified release verapamil

AIMS

Using a stable isotope technique which allows simultaneous and differential measuring of orally and intravenously administered drugs we compared the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of unlabelled modified release verapamil p.o. (steady state) and deuterated verapamil i.v. (single dose) following morning and evening administration.

METHODS

Twelve female and 12 male healthy volunteers were studied in a randomized, crossover design. During the last day of each treatment period (day 6 and day 10) pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PR interval) of verapamil were assessed; 1 h before ingestion of a new R/S-verapamil 240 mg modified release formulation (08.00 h vs 20.00 h) a single dose of 10 mg d7-R/S-verapamil was administered intravenously. Serum levels of unlabelled and labelled R/S-verapamil were measured by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. In selected samples of serum which were chosen at tmin,po and tmax,po the enantiomers were separated by chiral high-performance liquid chromatography in order to calculate R- to S-verapamil serum concentration ratios.

RESULTS

We observed no significant differences in pharmacokinetics (AUCpo, Cmax, tmax, CLo, F and R/S enantiomer ratio) between morning and evening treatment with modified release verapamil and there was no influence of time of dosing on mean prolongation of PR interval. AUCiv, CL, Vss and d7-R/d7-S enantiomer ratio following verapamil i.v. did not show circadian variation. t1/2 was slightly but statistically significantly increased after the morning infusion. PR-prolongation was significantly greater after verapamil i.v. in the morning than in the evening. The 90% confidence intervals of the differences between morning and evening administration in AUCpo, Cmax and AUCiv were within the equivalence range of 0.8-1.25.

CONCLUSIONS

Time of dosing has no significant influence on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of this new modified release formulation of verapamil. Circadian variation in presystemic metabolism of verapamil was not observed.

Pharmacokinetics of felodipine in patients with liver disease

Nine patients (6 males, 3 females) with biopsy-proven liver cirrhosis participated in an open, cross-over, three centre study of the effect of impaired liver function on the pharmacokinetics of felodipine. Two of the nine patients had undergone porto-caval anastomosis. Each patient was given 0.75 mg i.v. and 10 mg p.o. on separate occasions. The results of this study have been compared with published data from younger subjects and elderly hypertensive patients. The mean peak plasma concentration normalized to a dose of 10 mg (Cmax 46 nmol/l) was twice as high in the cirrhotic patients as in the healthy subjects, but the bioavailability, f, (17.0%) was comparable. Subjects with a porto-caval shunt did not have higher f than the mean for the group. The volume of distribution at steady-state, Vss, was significantly lower than in the healthy subjects. Protein binding was significantly lower in the patients with cirrhosis: 99.46% compared to 99.64% in the healthy subjects. The weight-corrected clearance was 1/3 of the value in healthy subjects. No correlation between systemic availability and oral clearance was found, so it is proposed that felodipine is metabolized both in the liver and also in the gut wall. The results suggest that at least the starting dose should be reduced in patients with severe liver disease.

Estimating reduced availability due to first pass elimination from relative total clearance and renal clearance

A simple formula is presented for estimating the systemic availability of an orally administered drug from the relative total clearance (oral clearance) when renal clearance forms an important part of total clearance. Hepatic plasma flow is used in the equation and is represented by an average value taken from the literature. The formula is applied to data for cimetidine discussed in the literature. A further application is demonstrated for a drug under development for which an intravenous formulation was not available. It is possible to estimate the upper and lower limit of availability if some information on the amount of drug absorbed is available.

Stereoselective first-pass metabolism of highly cleared drugs: studies of the bioavailability of L- and D-verapamil examined with a stable isotope technique

The pharmacokinetics of dextro(+)- and levo(-)-verapamil were studied in five healthy volunteers following oral administration of pseudoracemic verapamil containing equal amounts of unlabelled (-)- and dideuterated (+)-isomer. (+)-verapamil exhibited approximately five times greater Cmax (+): 240 +/- 81.1 ng/ml, (-): 46.1 +/- 15.7 ng/ml, P less than 0.0001) and AUC than (-)-verapamil. The apparent oral clearance (CLo) for (+)-verapamil was significantly smaller than that for (-)-verapamil (+): 1.72 +/- 0.57 l/min, (-): 7.46 +/- 2.16 l/min, P less than 0.001). The bioavailability of (+)-verapamil (50%) was 2.5 times greater than that of (-)-verapamil (20%), P less than 0.005). Thus following oral administration verapamil exhibited a stereoselective first-pass metabolism. Neither tmax nor the elimination t1/2,z were different between the isomers. The elimination of t1/2,z for each verapamil isomer obtained following oral administration (+): 4.03 h, (-): 5.38 h) were similar to those previously obtained following intravenous administration (+): 4.15 h, (-): 5.38 h, respectively. Whereas the (+)- to (-)-verapamil plasma concentration ratio following oral administration was 4.92 +/- 0.48, the ratio following i.v. administration was approximately 2. (-)-verapamil has been demonstrated to possess 8 to 10 times more potent negative dromotropic effect on AV conduction than (+)-verapamil. Therefore, following oral administration the same concentration of plasma verapamil consisting of a two to three times smaller proportion of the more potent (-)-isomer appeared to be less potent than that following i.v. administration with regard to the negative dromotropic effects on the AV conduction.

Inter- and intra-subject variation in the first-pass elimination of highly cleared drugs during chronic dosing. Studies with deuterated verapamil

The pharmacokinetics of verapamil in five healthy volunteers were investigated on 4 occasions during chronic administration of deuterated verapamil. There was no statistically significant difference in oral clearance, terminal half-life, bioavailability, morning trough level and peak concentration or in the time of their occurrence on the four occasions. The plasma clearance, however, exhibited considerable inter- and intra-individual variation, ranging between 26.3% and 85.4% and 12.0% and 48.0%, respectively. Comparison of these pharmacokinetic parameters with data from previous single dose studies in the same subjects revealed a significant (p less than 0.05) decrease in the clearance and an increase in the apparent bioavailability of verapamil during chronic administration, although no difference in the half-life was found. Due to the considerable variation in the oral clearance of verapamil during chronic dosing, steady-state conditions in a strict pharmacokinetic sense may never be attained, and pharmacokinetic data obtained in single dose studies will be of limited value in predicting steady-state plasma concentrations.

Pharmacokinetic interaction of contraceptive steroids with prednisone and prednisolone

The oestrogenic component of oral contraceptives affects the activity of liver enzymes and the concentrations of plasma proteins implicated in steroid metabolism and transport. The present study was designed to determine these effects on the kinetics of prednisone and prednisolone. After an oral dose of prednisone, women on oral contraceptive steroids (n = 10) had higher mean (+/- SD) area under the plasma concentration versus time curves of total (428 +/- 67 micrograms/ml/min vs 188 +/- 28 micrograms/ml/min, p less than 0.001) and unbound prednisolone (64 +/- 10 micrograms/ml/min vs 41 +/- 10 micrograms/ml/min, p less than 0.001) than women not taking oral contraceptive steroids (n = 10). The differences were attributable to a lower non-renal clearance of prednisolone and to a higher apparent systemic availability of the drug in contraceptive users than in the controls. The affinity of albumin and transcortin for prednisolone was lower in women on oral contraceptives than in controls (p less than 0.001). Thus, altered kinetics and protein binding may account for the known increase in glucocorticoid efficacy by oestrogens.