title: A simple method to evaluate reactivity of acylglucuronides optimized for early stage drug discovery.
abstract: Drugs containing the carboxylic functional group can be metabolized to form acylglucuronides believed to cause idiosyncratic drug toxicity when the acylglucuronide is unstable. Recent studies have shown that the half-life of an acylglucuronide in phosphate buffer is the best means for classifying acylglucuronides into safe, warning, and withdrawn drugs. However, it is difficult to halt the late stage development of new chemical entities due to the instability of their acylglucuronides. We report an optimized in vitro method for determining the half-lives of acylglucuronides in simple phosphate buffer without the need for authentic standards. The experiment was divided into two incubations. In the first incubation, acylglucuronide was synthesized by human liver microsomes, and in the second incubation, the degradation rate of acylglucuronide in phosphate buffer was determined. The degradation rate constants of acylglucuronides were determined from changes in the LC-MS/MS peak area and the half-lives were calculated. We evaluated the half-lives of 10 drugs: 3 safe drugs (telmisartan, gemfibrozil and flufenamic acid) and 7 withdrawn or warning drugs (zomepirac, diclofenac, furosemide, ibuprofen, S-naproxen, probenecid and tolmetin). The half-lives of the 3 safe drugs were 10.6 h or longer, whereas the half-lives of the 7 withdrawn or warning drugs were 4.0 h or shorter. Although authentic acylglucuronide standards were not used, we obtained half-lives of acylglucuronides in phosphate buffer similar to those reported previously. Using this method, the risk of reactivity caused by acylglucuronides can be evaluated in the early stages of drug discovery.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Safety Assessment and ADME, Pharmaceuticals Research Center, Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation.
authors.forename: Norimasa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jinno
authors.forename: Shigeki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohashi
authors.forename: Mizuka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tagashira
authors.forename: Terutomo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kohira
authors.forename: Shizuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamada
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D055808:Drug Discovery; D020719:Glucuronides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006207:Half-Life; D006801:Humans; D008862:Microsomes, Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010710:Phosphates / Q000737:chemistry; D017680:Potassium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D020719:Glucuronides; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D010710:Phosphates; D017680:Potassium Compounds; C013216:potassium phosphate