Triazolines. XXI: Preformulation degradation kinetics and chemical stability of a novel triazoline anticonvulsant.

The effect of pH, temperature, and two buffer species (citric acid-phosphate and bicarbonate-carbonate) on the stability of 1-(4-chlorophenyl)-5-(4-pyridyl)-delta 2-1,2,3-triazoline (ADD17014; 1), a novel triazoline anticonvulsant, was determined by HPLC. One of the main degradation products of 1 at pH 7.0 was isolated by TLC and identified as the aziridine derivative by MS. Investigations were carried out over a range of pH (2.2-10.7) and buffer concentration [ionic strength (mu), 0.25-4.18] at 23 degrees C. The degradation followed buffer-catalyzed, pseudo-first-order kinetics and was accelerated by a decrease in pH and an increase in temperature. The activation energy for the degradation in citric acid-phosphate buffer (pH 7.0 and constant ionic strength mu at 0.54) was 12.5 kcal/mol. General acid catalysis was observed at pH 7.0 in citric acid-phosphate buffer. The salt effect on the degradation obeyed the modified Debye-Hückel equation well; however, the observed charge product (ZAZB) value (2.69) deviated highly from the theoretical value (1.0), perhaps because of the high mu values (0.25-4.18) of the solutions used. The stability data will be useful in preformulation studies in the development of a stable, oral dosage form of 1.

Decarboxylation of L-dopa in the rat isolated vascularly perfused small intestine: contribution to systemic elimination and dose-dependent first pass effect.

The contribution of the rat small intestine to systemic and presystemic elimination of L-dopa was studied. When L-dopa was administered into the vascular perfusate, a systemic extraction ratio of 0.38 was found, the major part being decarboxylated to dopamine. The intestinal L-dopa clearance was estimated to be 17.1 mL min-1 kg-1. Thus, L-dopa intestinal clearance in rat represents up to at least 20% of the total body clearance. After luminal administration of L-dopa 83-88% of the administered dose was absorbed within 60 min. The total amount of L-dopa appearing in the vascular perfusate increased more than proportionally to the increase in the dose. In contrast, the amount of dopamine increased less than proportionally to the dose. As a result, the intestinal first pass appeared to be strongly dose-dependent. Since the total percentage absorbed from the lumen was independent of the administered dose and the total amount that appeared in the vascular perfusate increased linearly with the dose, the dose dependency was probably due to saturation of intestinal L-dopa decarboxylation.

Triazolines. XXIII. High-performance liquid chromatographic assay in rat blood for a novel triazoline anticonvulsant (ADD17014).

A sensitive and specific high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the analysis of 1-(4-chlorophenyl)-5-(4-pyridyl)-delta 2-1,2,3-triazoline (ADD17014, I), a novel anticonvulsant agent, in rat blood is described. Compound I and the internal standard (dipyridamole) were extracted into diethyl ether (5 ml) from alkalinised blood (0.25 ml of blood plus 0.75 ml of pH 10.7 buffer), with extractability nearing 100% under these conditions. The assay is based on reversed-phase HPLC (25 cm x 0.46 cm I.D. Spherisorb 5-ODS) using a mobile phase of methanol-acetonitrile-McIlvaine's citric acid-phosphate buffer (pH 8.0, 0.005 M) (30:30:40, v/v) and ultraviolet detection at 290 nm. Calibration curves were linear and reproducible (correlation coefficient greater than 0.999). Measurement of I in rat blood (250 microliters sample size) was linear in the range 0-40 microgram/ml and the coefficient of variation was less than 5%. The minimum detectable level was about 0.1 microgram/ml; however, a larger blood sample size (1-2 ml) allowed measurement of levels as low as 10 ng/ml, especially for estimation of drug levels in samples withdrawn at later time points (24 h).