title: Pharmacokinetics of memantine in rats and mice.
abstract: To evaluate the potential of memantine as a therapeutic agent for Huntington's disease (HD) we have undertaken a series of in vitro, ex vivo and whole animal studies to characterize its pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) in rats and mice. Results from these studies will enable determination of memantine exposures needed to engage the related functional PD marker and help predict the dose regimen for clinical trials to test its proposed mechanism of action; the selective blockade of extrasynaptic, but not synaptic, NMDA receptors. The studies reported here describe the PK of memantine in rats and mice at low (1 mg/kg) and high (10 mg/kg) doses. Our studies indicate that the clearance mechanisms of memantine in rats and mice are different from those in human, and that clearance needs to be taken into account when extrapolating to the human. In rats only, there is a significant metabolic contribution to memantine clearance at lower dose levels. While memantine is primarily cleared renally in all three species, the proportion of total systemic clearance above the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is much higher in rats and mice (~13, 4.5, and 1.4 times higher than GFR in rats, mice, and humans, respectively), suggesting that the contribution of active transport to memantine elimination in rats and mice is more significant than in the human. In rats and mice, memantine had a short half-life (<4 h) and steep Cmax/Cmin ratios (>100). In the human, the half-life of memantine was reported to be very long (60-80 h) with a Cmax/Cmin ratio at steady state concentrations of ~1.5. A small change in the clearance of memantine - for example due to renal impairment or competition for the elimination pathway with a co-administered drug - will likely affect exposure and, therefore, the selectivity of memantine on NMDA receptors . The PK differences observed between these species demonstrate that the PK in mice and rats cannot be directly extrapolated to the human. Further, the relationship between the plasma concentration (and therefore dose) needed to elicit a mechanism-related in vivo functional effect (PD readout) while maintaining the selectivity of the extrasynaptic blockade of the NMDA receptors needs to be established before clinical trials can be appropriately planned.
authors.affiliation: Director, DMPK, CHDI Management/CHDI Foundation, Princeton, NJ;  Director of In Vivo Biology, CHDI Foundation Inc;  Director, PreClinical Research, CHDI Foundation, Inc;  Pharmacokinetic consultant for the CHDI Foundation, Holland NY;  CHDI Foundation, Inc.;  VP, Chemistry CHDI Foundation/ CHDI Management Inc. Los Angeles CA;  VP Translational Biology, CHDI Management/CHDI Foundation Inc., Los Angeles (USA) and  CSO - Drug Discovery & Development, CHDI Foundation / CHDI Management.
authors.forename: Maria G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Beconi
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Howland
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Giuliano
authors.forename: Celia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dominguez
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Munoz-Sanjuan
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pacifici