Design, synthesis, and in vitro kinetics study of atenolol prodrugs for the use in aqueous formulations.

Based on DFT, MP2, and the density functional from Truhlar group (hybrid GGA: MPW1k) calculations for an acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of nine Kirby's N-alkylmaleamic acids and two atenolol prodrugs were designed. The calculations demonstrated that the amide bond cleavage is due to intramolecular nucleophilic catalysis by the adjacent carboxylic acid group and the rate-limiting step is determined based on the nature of the amine leaving group. In addition, a linear correlation of the calculated and experimental rate values has drawn credible basis for designing atenolol prodrugs that are bitterless, are stable in neutral aqueous solutions, and have the potential to release the parent drug in a sustained release manner. For example, based on the calculated B3LYP/6-31 G (d,p) rates, the predicted t1/2 (a time needed for 50% of the prodrug to be converted into drug) values for atenolol prodrugs ProD 1-ProD 2 at pH 2 were 65.3 hours (6.3 hours as calculated by GGA: MPW1K) and 11.8 minutes, respectively. In vitro kinetic study of atenolol prodrug ProD 1 demonstrated that the t1/2 was largely affected by the pH of the medium. The determined t1/2 values in 1N HCl, buffer pH2, and buffer pH 5 were 2.53, 3.82, and 133 hours, respectively.

Removal of diclofenac potassium from wastewater using clay-micelle complex.

The presence of an ionized carboxyl group in the widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug diclofenac potassium results in a high mobility of diclofenac and in its low sorption under conditions of slow sand filtration or subsoil passage. No diclofenac degradation was detected in pure water or sludge during one month. Tertiary treatments of wastewater indicated that the effective removal of diclofenac was by reverse osmosis, but the removal by activated carbon was less satisfactory. This study presents an efficient method for the removal of diclofenac from water by micelle-clay composites that are positively charged, have a large surface area and include large hydrophobic domains. Adsorption of diclofenac in dispersion by charcoal and a composite micelle (otadecyltrimethylammonium [ODTMA] and clay [montmorillonite]) was investigated. Analysis by the Langmuir isotherm revealed that charcoal had a somewhat larger number of adsorption sites than the composite, but the latter had a significantly larger binding affinity for diclofenac. Filtration experiments on a solution containing 300 ppm diclofenac demonstrated poor removal by activated carbon, in contrast to very efficient removal by micelle-clay filters. In the latter case the weight of removed diclofenac exceeded half that of ODTMA in the filter. Filtration of diclofenac solutions at concentrations of 8 and 80 ppb yielded almost complete removal at flow rates of 30 and 60 mL min(-1). One kilogram of ODTMA in the micelle-clay filter has been estimated to remove more than 99% of diclofenac from a solution of 100 ppb during passage of more than 100 m3.

The future of prodrugs - design by quantum mechanics methods.

INTRODUCTION: The revolution in computational chemistry greatly impacted the drug design and delivery fields, in general, and recently the utilization of the prodrug approach in particular. The use of ab initio, semiempirical and molecular mechanics methods to understand organic reaction mechanisms of certain processes, especially intramolecular reactions, has opened the door to design and to rapidly produce safe and efficacious delivery of a wide range of active small molecule and biotherapeutics such as prodrugs. AREAS COVERED: This article provides the readers with a concise overview of this modern approach to prodrug design. The use of computational approaches, such as density functional theory (DFT), semiempirical and ab initio molecular orbital methods, in modern prodrugs design will be discussed. The novel prodrug approach to be reported in this review implies prodrug design based on enzyme model (mimicking enzyme catalysis) that has been utilized to understand how enzymes work. The tool used in the design is a computational approach consisting of calculations using molecular orbital and molecular mechanics methods (DFT, ab initio and MM2) and correlations between experimental and calculated values of intramolecular processes that were used to understand the mechanism by which enzymes might exert their high rates catalysis. EXPERT OPINION: The future of prodrug technology is exciting yet extremely challenging. Advances must be made in understanding the chemistry of many organic reactions that can be effectively utilized to enable the development of even more types of prodrugs. Despite the increase in the number of marketed prodrugs, we have only started to appreciate the potential of the prodrug approach in modern drug development, and the coming years will witness many novel prodrug innovations.

Prodrugs of acyclovir--a computational approach.

Density functional theory calculation results demonstrated that the efficiency of the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of Kirby's acid amides 1-15 is strongly dependent on the substitution on the C-C double bond and the nature of the amide N-alkyl group. Further, the results established that while in the gas phase the hydrolysis rate-limiting step is the tetrahedral intermediate formation in polar solvents such as water, the rate-limiting step could be either the formation or the collapse of the tetrahedral intermediate depending on the substitution on the C-C double bond and on the amide nitrogen substituent. Based on a linear correlation between the calculated and experimental effective molarities, the study on the systems reported herein could provide a good basis for designing prodrug systems that are less hydrophilic than their parental drugs and can be used, in different dosage forms, to release the parent drug in a controlled manner. For example, based on the calculated log effective molarities values, the predicted t(1/2) (a time needed for 50% of the reactant to be hydrolyzed to products) for acyclovir prodrugs, ProD 1-4, was 29.2 h, 6097 days, 4.6 min, and 8.34 h, respectively. Hence, the rate by which acyclovir prodrug releases acyclovir can be determined according to the structural features of the linker (Kirby's acid amide moiety).