Determination of bencycloquidium bromide, a novel anticholinergic compound, in rat tissues by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Pharmacokinetics, safety and tolerability of Bencycloquidium bromide, a novel selective muscarinic M1/M3 receptor antagonist, after single and multiple intranasal doses in healthy chinese subjects: an open-label, single-center, first-in-human study

Background: Bencycloquidium bromide (BCQB) is a novel, potent and selective muscarinic M1/M3 receptor antagonist under development for the treatment of rhinorrhea in rhinitis. The pharmacokinetics and safety of BCQB in animals have been established in preclinical studies. However, no clinical pharmacokinetic data are available for BCQB in humans.

Objective: The aim of this first-in-human study was to evaluate the pharmacokinetics, safety and tolerability of BCQB following single and multiple intranasal doses in healthy Chinese subjects.

Methods: The clinical trial was comprised of the following four studies: (i) an open-label, single-dose escalation study to evaluate the safety and tolerability in healthy subjects after intranasal doses of BCQB ranging from 45 to 450 mg (total of six doses); (ii) an open-label, multiple-dose escalation study to assess the safety and tolerability in healthy subjects after intranasal administration with 120 and 150 mg doses of BCQB (360 and 450 μg/day) administered three times daily for 15 days; (iii) a randomized, open-label and parallel-group design to evaluate the single-dose pharmacokinetics of BCQB after intranasal dosing (45, 90, and 180 μg); and (iv) ten subjects received 120 μg of BCQB by intranasal administration, three times daily for 5 days with a final single dose on day 7 to assess its multiple-dose pharmacokinetics. Safety and tolerability of BCQB were evaluated by monitoring adverse events (AEs), ECG recordings, vital signs and clinical laboratory parameters. The pharmacokinetic parameters for BCQB were calculated by software using noncompartmental methods.

Results: All AEs were mild, of limited duration and no more frequent at higher doses. There was no serious adverse event, death or withdrawal. No clinically significant change was noted in clinical laboratory parameters, cardiac parameters or vital signs. Following single intranasal dosing, BCQB was rapidly absorbed with a median time to maximum concentration (t_max) of 8 minutes for 45, 90, and 180 mg dose groups; the plasma concentration of BCQB decreased in a biphasic manner with the mean half-life (t_1/2) of 8.5 hours; the maximum concentration (C_max) and area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) of BCQB increased linearly across the examined dose range of 45–180 μg. During the multiple dosing, the steady state was achieved within 3 days of 120 μg three times daily dosing of BCQB. A slightly greater AUC was observed after 5 days of multiple dosing, with the mean accumulation ratio of 1.26; however, the half-life was unchanged.

Conclusion: BCQB was safe and well tolerated in healthy Chinese subjects when administered intranasally with single and multiple doses across the doses studied. The mean C_max and AUC increased proportionally to the studied doses, and the steady state was achieved within 3 days after three times daily dosing. A slight accumulation of BCQB following multiple dosing was observed. The pharmacokinetics, safety and tolerability profiles of BCQB pose it as a good candidate for further development in the treatment of rhinorrhea in rhinitis.

Subchronic toxicity and toxicokinetics of long-term intranasal administration of bencycloquidium bromide: a 91-day study in dogs

The subchronic toxicity and toxicokinetics of Bencycloquidium bromide (BCQB) were evaluated after 91-day intranasal administration in dogs at daily dose levels of 2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 mg/kg. Following repeated exposure to medium- or high-dose of BCQB, apparent changes were observed in the levels of blood glucose, creatinine or blood urea nitrogen in both male and female dogs. The no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of BCQB was considered to be 2.5 mg/kg/day under the present study conditions. There were no significant gender differences in most indexes of subchronic toxicity throughout the experimental period with the exception of food consumption and body weight, or in the parameters of plasma toxicokinetics after either single-dose or repeated administrations of BCQB at each dosage. In dog, BCQB did not accumulate in blood plasma, while much higher concentrations of BCQB residues were found in most tissues examined (especially the kidney) following 91-day repeated exposure relative to a single dose. In all tissues except the reproductive organs, BCQB concentrations reverted to low levels by 2 weeks post-dosing. The results indicate that blood glucose levels and renal function should be closely monitored when BCQB is used in long-term therapy.

Determination of bencycloquidium bromide in dog plasma by liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid, selective and sensitive liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for determining bencycloquidium bromide (BCQB) in beagle dog plasma. The plasma sample was deproteinized with methanol which contained l-ethyl-bencycloquidium bromide as internal standard, and supernantant was assayed by LC-MS/MS. The chromatographic separation was performed on a Phenomenex C(18) column (100 x 2.0 mm, i.d., 3.0 microm) with a gradient programme mobile phase consisting of methanol and ammonium acetate (5 mm) containing 0.15% acetic acid and at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. Electrospray ionization in positive ion mode and selective reaction monitoring was used for the quantification of BCQB with a monitored transitions m/z 330.2 --> 142.1 for BCQB and m/z 344.2 --> 126.2 for IS. Validation results indicated that the lower limit of quantification was 0.05 ng/mL and the assay exhibited a linear range of 0.05-10.0 ng/mL and gave a correlation coefficient of 0.9998. The intra- and inter-run precisions of the assay were 1.7-4.6 and 3.2-15.6%, respectively, and the intra- and inter-day accuracies were -8.8 to 1.1 and -5.0 to 4.6%, respectively. The developed method was applied for the pharmacokinetic study of BCQB in beagle dogs following a single intranasal dose.

Determination of bencycloquidium bromide in human urine using weak cation-exchange solid-phase extraction and LC-ESI-MS: Method validation and application to kinetic study of urinary excretion

A sensitive LC-ESI-MS method has been developed and validated for the determination of bencycloquidium bromide (BCQB) in human urine samples. The method utilized a solid-phase extraction (SPE) procedure, choosing carboxy propyl phase (CBA) as the extracting sorbent for purification of BCQB, with better baseline and higher selectivity achieved. Sample preparation by this method yielded very good and consistent mean recovery of above 94.5%. Another major benefit of the present method was the high detectability, with a lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of 0.02ng/ml. The developed method was successfully applied to determine BCQB in human urine, and was proved to be suitable for use in Phase I clinical pharmacokinetic study of BCQB.