Chromatographic and computational screening of anisotropic lipophilicity and pharmacokinetics of newly synthesized 1-aryl-3-ethyl-3-methylsuccinimides

In silico-in vitro estimation of lipophilicity and permeability association for succinimide derivatives using chromatographic anisotropic systems and parallel artificial membrane permeability assay

Passive permeability is one of the key features that determine absorbability and one of the most studied properties in the early phases of drug development. Newly synthesized succinimide derivatives from two different series (1-aryl-3-methylsuccinimides and 1-aryl-3-ethyl-3-methylsuccinimides) with high biological potential have been subjected to estimation of their passive permeability and their association with (a) experimentally obtained anisotropic lipophilicity, (b) in silico-calculated lipophilicity and (c) in silico-predicted permeability and absorbability. Non-cellular-based parallel artificial membrane permeability assay was applied for quantifying their passive permeation, expressed as logP_app . Passive permeation was governed by the lipophilicity of the analysed compounds, and anisotropic lipophilicity was related with statistically significant passive transcellular diffusion (r²  = 0.614, P < 0.001). Moreover, experimentally determined passive permeability, logP_app , was statistically significantly associated with both in silico-predicted absorption constant, k_a (r²  = 0.7886, P < 0.001), and human intestinal absorption (HIA) in percentage (r²  = 0.484, P < 0.001), respectively. However, there was no statistically significant relationship between experimentally obtained permeability on non-cellular-based model and in silico-predicted Caco-2 permeability based on the predictions conducted on two different software. Based on the obtained results, anisotropic systems are promising surrogates for determining lipophilicity, except for compounds with acidic functional groups that are completely ionized under (pH = 7.4).

Comparative chemometric and quantitative structure-retention relationship analysis of anisotropic lipophilicity of 1-arylsuccinimide derivatives determined in high-performance thin-layer chromatography system with aprotic solvents

Numerous structurally different amides and imides including succinimide derivatives exhibit diverse bioactive potential. The development of new compounds requires rationalization in the design in order to provide structural changes that guarantee favorable physico-chemical properties, pharmacological activity and safety. In the present research, a comprehensive study with comparison of the chromatographic lipophilicity and other physico-chemical properties of five groups of 1-arylsuccinimide derivatives was conducted. The chemometric analysis of their physico-chemical properties was carried out by using unsupervised (hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis) and supervised pattern recognition methods (linear discriminant analysis), while the correlations between the in silico molecular features and chromatographic lipophilicity were examined applying linear and non-linear Quantitative Structure-Retention Relationship (QSRR) approaches. The main aim of the conducted research was to determine similarities and dissimilarities among the studied 1-arylsuccinimides, to point out the molecular features which have significant influence on their lipophilicity, as well as to establish high-quality QSRR models which can be used in prediction of chromatographic lipophilicity of structurally similar 1-arylsuccinimides. This study is a continuation of analysis and determination of the physico-chemical properties of 1-arylsuccinimides which could be important guidelines in further in vitro and eventually in vivo studies of their biological potential.