Pharmacokinetics of acebutolol enantiomers in humans

Enantiospecific behaviour of chiral drugs in soil

The importance of stereochemistry on the behaviour and effects of chiral pharmaceutical and illicit drugs in amended agricultural soils has been over looked to date. Therefore, this study was aimed at investigating the enantiospecific behaviour of a chemically diverse range of chiral drugs including naproxen, ibuprofen, salbutamol, bisoprolol, metoprolol, propranolol, acebutolol, atenolol, chlorpheniramine, amphetamine, fluoxetine and citalopram in soil microcosms. Considerable changes of the enantiomeric composition of ibuprofen, naproxen, atenolol, acebutolol and amphetamine were observed within 56 d. This is significant as enantiomer enrichment can favour the pharmacologically active (e.g., S(-)-atenolol) or less/non-active forms of the drug (e.g., R(-)-amphetamine). Single enantiomer microcosms showed enantiospecific degradation was responsible for enantiomer enrichment of atenolol and amphetamine. However, naproxen and ibuprofen enantiomers were subject to chiral inversion whereby one enantiomer converts to its antipode. Interestingly, chiral inversion was bidirectional and this is the first time it is reported in soil. Therefore, introduction of the less active enantiomer to soil through irrigation with reclaimed wastewater or biosolids as fertiliser can result in the formation of its active enantiomer, or vice versa. This phenomenon needs considered in risk assessment frameworks to avoid underestimating the risk posed by chiral drugs in amended soils.

Survey of Pharmacological Activity and Pharmacokinetics of Selected β-Adrenergic Blockers in Regard to Their Stereochemistry

The present survey concentrates on pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of selected β-adrenergic blockers from the point of view of their stereochemistry. It could be shown that the activity in the arylaminoethanol and aryloxyaminopropanol group of β-blockers is higher in their (–)-enantiomers as compared with the (+)-enantiomers. The stereoisomers differ also in other types of bioactivity as well as in toxicity. The particular pharmacokinetic stages such as resorption, distribution, and metabolism are discussed in regard to their stereochemistry.

On the relaxation dynamics in active pharmaceutical ingredients: solid-state 1H NMR, quasi-elastic neutron scattering and periodic DFT study of acebutolol hydrochloride

Molecular dynamics of acebutolol hydrochloride was thoroughly explored by combining QENS and NMR experiments with solid-state DFT calculations.

Pharmacologically active drug metabolites: impact on drug discovery and pharmacotherapy

Metabolism represents the most prevalent mechanism for drug clearance. Many drugs are converted to metabolites that can retain the intrinsic affinity of the parent drug for the pharmacological target. Drug metabolism redox reactions such as heteroatom dealkylations, hydroxylations, heteroatom oxygenations, reductions, and dehydrogenations can yield active metabolites, and in rare cases even conjugation reactions can yield an active metabolite. To understand the contribution of an active metabolite to efficacy relative to the contribution of the parent drug, the target affinity, functional activity, plasma protein binding, membrane permeability, and pharmacokinetics of the active metabolite and parent drug must be known. Underlying pharmacokinetic principles and clearance concepts are used to describe the dispositional behavior of metabolites in vivo. A method to rapidly identify active metabolites in drug research is described. Finally, over 100 examples of drugs with active metabolites are discussed with regard to the importance of the metabolite(s) in efficacy and safety.

Drug disposition in three dimensions: an update on stereoselectivity in pharmacokinetics

Many marketed drugs are chiral and are administered as the racemate, a 50:50 combination of two enantiomers. Pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic differences between enantiomers are well documented. Because of enantioselectivity in pharmacokinetics, results of in vitro pharmacodynamic studies involving enantiomers may differ from those in vivo where pharmacokinetic processes will proceed. With respect to pharmacokinetics, disparate plasma concentration vs time curves of enantiomers may result from the pharmacokinetic processes proceeding at different rates for the two enantiomers. At their foundation, pharmacokinetic processes may be enantioselective at the levels of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion. In some circumstances, one enantiomer can be chemically or biochemically inverted to its antipode in a unidirectional or bidirectional manner. Genetic consideration such as polymorphic drug metabolism and gender, and patient factors such as age, disease state and concomitant drug intake can all play a role in determining the relative plasma concentrations of the enantiomers of a racemic drug. The use of a nonstereoselective assay method for a racemic compound can lead to difficulties in interpretation of data from, for example, bioequivalence or dose/concentration vs effect assessments. In this review data from a number of representative studies involving pharmacokinetics of chiral drugs are presented and discussed.

Influence of cimetidine co-administration on the pharmacokinetics of acebutolol enantiomers and its metabolite diacetolol in a rat model: the effect of gastric pH on double-peak phenomena

Acebutolol (AC) is a chiral beta-adrenergic receptor-blocking agent, which has been shown to be clinically effective in hypertension. The plasma concentration-time profiles of AC exhibit two peaks following oral administration of racemate for both R- and S-enantiomers. In the present study, the absorption of AC after a single dose was studied as a function of gastric pH in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Furthermore, the effect of cimetidine (CIM) on pharmacokinetic parameters of AC and its metabolite diacetolol (DC) was evaluated. CIM (50 mg kg(-1)) was administered via jugular vein 30 min prior to AC administration to elevate the intragastric pH. AC (50 mg kg(-1)) was administered orally by gavage and serial blood samples were collected before and for 8h after AC administration. Plasma samples were assayed for AC and DC, pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated and compared with those of control. The concentration-time profiles and the pharmacokinetics of AC were unchanged after co-administration of CIM. The oral absorption of AC, as assessed by the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) and the amount of unchanged drug recovered in the urine were not affected by CIM. The amount of metabolite recovered in the urine and the rate of absorption, however, were significantly altered. These are unlikely to be of clinically importance as we have found that the extent of absorption was not changed. We, therefore, concluded that intragastric elevation of pH has no effect either on generation of multiple peaking or on pharmacokinetic parameters of AC.

Arylamine N-acetyltransferases and drug response

Arylamine N-acetyltransferases (NATs) play an important role in the interaction of competing metabolic pathways determining the fate of and response to xenobiotics as therapeutic drugs, occupational chemicals and carcinogenic substances. Individual susceptibility for drug response and possible adverse drug reactions are modulated by the genetic predisposition (manifested for example, by polymorphisms) and the phenotype of these enzymes. For all drugs metabolized by NATs, the impact of different in vivo enzyme activities is reviewed with regard to therapeutic use, prevention of side effects and possible indications for risk assessment by phenotyping and/or genotyping. As genes of NATs are susceptibility genes for multifactorial adverse effects and xenobiotic-related diseases, risk prediction can only be made possible by taking the complexity of events into consideration.

Enantioselective high performance liquid chromatographic assay of acebutolol and its active metabolite diacetolol in human serum

A stereoselective direct liquid chromatographic method for assay of the enantiomers of the beta-adrenergic blocker acebutolol (AC) and its active metabolite, diacetolol (DC), in human serum was developed. The assay is based on extraction with ethyl acetate and separation of enantiomers on an amylose tris-(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) chiral stationary phase (Chiralpak AD) column. The method was validated and proved useful for the determination of the enantiomers in serum samples of patients suffering from hypertension and chronically treated with racemic AC. The results were compared and found similar with an indirect assay based on derivatization of the enantiomers with (+)-(S)-1-(1-naphthyl)ethyl isocyanate (NEIC).

Effect of adjuvant arthritis on the disposition of acebutolol enantiomers in rats

Disease states such as arthritis may interact with the kinetics of beta-blockers. Acebutolol (AC) is a chiral beta-blocker which is available as a racemate. The beneficial properties of AC, however, is attributed mainly to the S-(+)-enantiomer. The disposition of AC enantiomers and their active, chiral metabolites, diacetolol (DC) were examined after oral administration to healthy and adjuvant-induced arthritic (AA) female Sprague-Dawley rats. Arthritis was induced by tail base injection of Mycobacterium butyricum. Swelling of hind and forepaws were apparent in 10-16 days in AA but not controls. Control and AA rats were sacrificed at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 h after a 25 mg/kg oral AC dose and blood was collected (n = 6). Significant three to tenfold increases in the initial plasma concentrations (0.5-2 h) of AC were observed in AA. Enantiomers were equally affected, thus AC S:R ratio was not changed. Higher plasma concentrations of the metabolite were only significant at 2 h. The ratio of DC:AC, however, was unaffected by AA. The DC S:R ratio was significantly decreased at 0.5 and 1 h in AA. The limited protein binding of AC (10%) was neither stereoselective nor affected by AA. Reduced intrinsic clearance in AA may be responsible for these observations.

Stereospecific high-performance liquid chromatographic assay of metoprolol

A valid, sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic technique is reported for the separation of the two enantiomers of metoprolol in human plasma. The procedure involves pre-column derivatization with the homochiral reagent S-(+)-1-(1-naphthyl)ethyl isocyanate. Once formed, the diastereomers are separated using normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Fluorescence detection (220 nm excitation; no emission filter) was utilized, resulting in baseline resolution (Rs greater than 1.5). The peaks corresponding to metoprolol enantiomers were free from interference throughout the examined range of 5-500 ng/ml; accuracy and precision were within approximately 10%. Analysis of a plasma sample collected from a healthy volunteer demonstrated that the assay is applicable to clinical studies.

Effect of aging on the pharmacokinetics of acebutolol enantiomers

Acebutolol (AC) is a chiral beta-blocker that is metabolized to an equipotent chiral metabolite, diacetolol (DC). A stereoselective disposition of AC and DC enantiomers has recently been reported in young healthy subjects. As many physiologic properties affecting drug disposition are progressively altered with increasing age, the effect of aging on the pharmacokinetics of AC and DC enantiomers were investigated in nine subjects ranging from 60 to 75 years after administration of an oral 200-mg dose of racemic AC. Increasing age resulted in a significant prolongation of the elimination t1/2s of R- (r = 0.913) and S-DC (r = 0.811). Also, the S:R ratios of AC urinary excretion (sigma Xu) of enantiomers was significantly correlated with age (r = 0.677). Contribution of declining renal function to age-associated pharmacokinetics changes was subsequently examined. Renal clearance and cumulative urinary excretion of both AC and DC enantiomers were positively correlated with creatinine clearance. In addition, declining creatinine clearance was associated with a subsequent decline in the enantiomer S:R ratio of AC in plasma (AUC S:R, r = 0.807) and urine (sigma Xu S:R r = 0.807). Similarly, a progressive decline in the S:R ratio of DC collected in urine was evident (r = 0.689). Age-related changes in the enantiomers ratios may suggest that an active stereoselective pathway such as renal tubular secretion or nonrenal excretion may be affected in the elderly.

Stereospecific high-performance liquid chromatographic assay of sotalol in plasma

A convenient high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) assay was developed for determination of sotalol (STL) enantiomers in plasma. Following addition of the internal standard (IS; racemic atenolol), enantiomers of STL and IS were extracted using ethyl acetate. After evaporation of the organic layer, samples were derivatized with a solution of S-(+)-1-(1-naphthyl)ethyl isocyanate (NEIC). The resulting diastereomers were chromatographed with normal-phase HPLC with chloroform:hexane:methanol [65:33:2 (v/v)] as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 2 ml/min. The fluorescence detection wavelength was set at 220 nm for excitation with no emission filter. The suitability of the assay for pharmacokinetic studies was determined by measuring STL enantiomers in the plasma of a healthy subject after administration of a single 160-mg oral, racemic dose of STL.