A comparative in vitro metabolic study of methaphenilene and pyribenzamine

pH-gradient PAMPA-based in vitro model assay for drug-induced phospholipidosis in early stage of drug discovery

In the present study we validated a widely used, high-throughput in vitro permeability model (PAMPA) to be used at the early stage of drug discovery for the phospholipidosis (PLD) prediction of drug-like compounds. Regarding the mechanism of action of PLD, our pH-gradient PAMPA system is the first noncell based model to mimic one-way transport of cationic amphiphilic drugs (CADs) from cytosol to the lysosome. Moreover, due to the fact that PLD can mainly occur in lung, liver, brain, kidney and heart, we have used similar commercially available original tissue-derived lipid fractions (heart, liver, brain), and in the case mimicking membrane of kidney and lung tissue we prepared tissue-mimetic artificial lipid mixtures in house. Metabolism of a drug can change the degree of PLD depending on the physicochemical properties of metabolites and the rate of metabolism. Our data from 57 drugs and 4 metabolites of earlier and 2 metabolites of newly recognized outliers (phenacetin and bupropion) using our pH-gradient PAMPA system show a good correlation with in vivo PLD data. Moreover, predictive ability of our best system, the lung specific pH-gradient PAMPA model was significantly better than widely used in silico models and it was also slightly better than that of the known noncell based models on our selection of compounds. Our pH-gradient PAMPA systems therefore offer mechanistically alternative, accurate and cost-effective screening tools for the early prediction of PLD potential of drug-like compounds.

N(+)-glucuronidation of aliphatic tertiary amines, a general phenomenon in the metabolism of H1-antihistamines in humans

1. Representative drugs of the various structural classes of H1 antihistamines were chosen for study. The drugs chosen (class name in parentheses) were chlorpheniramine maleate and pheniramine maleate (alkylamines), diphenhydramine hydrochloride and doxylamine succinate (ethanolamines), pyrilamine maleate and tripelennamine hydrochloride (ethylenediamines), promethazine hydrochloride (phenothiazine), cyclizine lactate (piperazine) and terfenadine (miscellaneous). In each case oral dose(s) were administered over no more than 6 h to two healthy volunteers and the total urine collected for 36 h. 2. Metabolites from urine were separated by h.p.l.c. and individually collected prior to mass spectrometric analysis in the fast atom bombardment mode. The structure of each metabolite identified as a quaternary ammonium-linked glucuronide metabolite was confirmed by direct comparison of its mass spectrum and chromatographic behaviour with that of a synthetic authentic compound. 3. For eight of the nine drugs studied, metabolism by the N(+)-glucuronidation pathway was observed in each of the volunteers. Terfenadine was the exception. 4. The amount of each N(+)-glucuronide in the urine was estimated by h.p.l.c. analysis. The mean proportion of dose excreted as the metabolite was 14.3%, 6.5% and 4.0% for cyclizine, tripelennamine and diphenhydramine, respectively. Promethazine was the only case where the N(+)-glucuronide accounted for less than 1.0% of the administered dose in both volunteers examined.

Species differences in the metabolism and macromolecular binding of methapyrilene: a comparison of rat, mouse and hamster

1. The metabolism of methapyrilene (MPH) by rat, hamster and mouse liver microsomes in vitro was investigated together with the binding of 14C-MPH to calf thymus DNA after metabolic activation. 2. Both quantitative and qualitative differences in MPH metabolism were observed in these three species. Mouse liver microsomes catalyse the formation of two novel isomers of hydroxypyrdylmethapyrilene (hydroxypyridyl-MPH) as determined by mass spectral analysis. N,N'-Didesmethylmethapyrilene (didesmethyl-MPH) was formed in detectable quantities only when hamster liver microsomes were used. 3. Incubation of liver microsomes from all three species catalysed the binding of 14C-MPH to exogenous DNA, which was quantitatively similar for all three species. The effect of the cytochrome P-450 inhibitor, 2,4-dichloro-6-phenylphenoxyethylamine (DPEA), and methimazole, a flavin-dependent monooxygenase inhibitor, on binding differed significantly for the three species studied.