Quantitative assessment of photostability and photostabilisation of Fluvoxamine and its design for actinometry.

Despite the numerous concerns that have been raised in relation to considering 0(th), 1(st) and 2(nd)-order kinetic treatments for photodegradation characterisation and assessment of drugs, they still are employed, as they are the only tools available for these types of studies. The recently developed Φ-order kinetic models have opened new perspectives in the treatment of photoreaction kinetics and stand as the best known alternative to the classical approach. The Φ-order kinetics have been applied here to Fluvoxamine (Fluvo) with the aim of setting out a detailed and comprehensive procedure capable of rationalising photodegradation/photostability of drugs and proposing a platform for photosafety studies. Our results prove that quantum yields of drugs (0.0016 < Φ(λirr)(Fluvo) < 0.43) should a priori be considered wavelength-dependent; their photostabilisation (up to 75% for Fluvo) by means of absorption competitors can explicitly be related to a decrease of the photokinetic factor, and photoreversible drugs can be developed into efficient actinometers (as Fluvoxamine in the 260-290 nm range). A pseudo-rate-constant factor was proposed as a descriptive parameter, circumventing the limitations of overall rate-constants and allowing a comparison between kinetic data of drugs obtained under different conditions.

Photoisomerization of fluvoxamine generates an isomer that has reduced activity on the 5-hydroxytryptamine transporter and does not affect cell proliferation.

Fluvoxamine, a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor, is used as antidepressant/anxiolytic. The presence of a C=N double bond in the structure of fluvoxamine implies the existence of two geometric isomers: E- (trans) and Z- (cis), and suggests the hypothetical susceptibility of the molecule to photoisomerization. Clinically effective fluvoxamine is in its trans form. UVB (ultraviolet light, class B, wavelength range 290-320 nm) irradiation of aqueous solutions of fluvoxamine generated a photoproduct, which was isolated and analyzed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS), and identified as the cis isomer of fluvoxamine. This cis-isomer lost capacity to inhibit serotonin uptake, suggesting that light exposure might reduce the clinical efficacy of fluvoxamine. Alternatively, the photoproduct could be used as an inactive isomer in the studies of antidepressant mechanisms. Recent proposal suggests that antidepressants increase neurogenesis in the adult brain, whereas either an inhibitory or a stimulatory action of antidepressants on [(3)H]thymidine uptake in vitro has been attributed to their interaction with serotonergic mechanisms. Lower concentrations (i.e., 2 microM) of fluvoxamine and fluoxetine (another selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor) stimulated [(3)H]thymidine uptake in mature, but inhibited it in immature cultures of rat cerebellar granule cells; the photoproduct was ineffective. A high concentration of fluvoxamine (i.e., 20 microM) but not the photoproduct was toxic to both immature and mature cultures. We suggest that a mechanism sensitive to fluvoxamine photoisomerization might be involved in the action of antidepressants on cell proliferation.