Idebenone, a new drug in the treatment of cognitive impairment in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a central nervous system disorder characterized by the presence of neurofibrillary tangles, neuritic plaques and dystrophic neurones in susceptible areas of the brain. Few options for treatment of AD symptomatology are available. We conducted a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel trial consisting of a 90 day treatment period followed by a 30 day single blind placebo administration and by an optional long term period of treatment up to a year with idebenone in open fashion. Ninety two patients entered the study and nine of them dropped out before the first control. Treatment with idebenone was found effective on memory, attention, and orientation and in slowing down the natural progressive worsening of the disease. The most common side effects associated with this treatment were insomnia, gastralgia, nausea, and anxiety. However, all adverse effects were of mild intensity and did not require specific therapies.

Efficacy, tolerability, and impact on quality of life of long-term treatment with manidipine or amlodipine in patients with essential hypertension.

This double-blind, multicenter trial compared antihypertensive efficacy, tolerability, and impact on quality of life of manidipine and amlodipine in patients with mild-to-moderate essential hypertension. Patients were randomly assigned to 48 weeks of once-daily manidipine, 10-20 mg, or amlodipine, 5-10 mg. Patients who did not respond to treatment after 12 weeks were also given enalapril, 10-20 mg, for the study's duration. The main efficacy end point was equivalence in sitting systolic (SiSBP) and diastolic (SiDBP) blood pressure reduction between the two drugs after 8 weeks (per protocol analysis). An intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis was performed in all patients with at least one efficacy determination during treatment. Quality of life was assessed by the "Subjective Symptoms Assessment Profile" (SSA-P) and "General Well-being Schedule" (GWBS), after 12 weeks of treatment. SiSBP reduction after 8 weeks was equivalent for manidipine (15.2 mm Hg, n = 227) and amlodipine (17.0 mm Hg, n = 219). The corresponding figure for SiDBP was 11.3 mm Hg for manidipine and 12.3 mm Hg for amlodipine. In the larger ITT population SiDBP was similarly and significantly reduced by manidipine (from 102 +/- 5 to 88 +/- 9 mm Hg, n = 241) and amlodipine (from 101 +/- 5 to 87 +/- 8 mm Hg, n = 240). Similar results were observed for SiSBP and standing SBP and DBP. Neither drug changed sitting or standing heart rate compared with baseline. SSA-P scores improved with manidipine but not amlodipine. GWBS total and partial scores increased more with manidipine than with amlodipine. Safety profile favored manidipine, which was associated with significantly less ankle edema than was amlodipine. This study shows for the first time that long-term treatment with the long-acting calcium channel blocker manidipine is as effective as treatment with amlodipine, has a better tolerability profile, and induces greater improvement in quality of life than amlodipine.

Gas chromatographic assay for estazolam in human plasma and results of a bioequivalence study.

This paper describes a new sensitive gas chromatographic method with electron capture detector to assay estazolam in human plasma, which has been developed and validated for pharmacokinetic purposes. The drug and the internal standard (triazolam) were extracted from plasma buffered at pH 9.0 into toluene and analysed on a widebore DB 17 column. The calibration curve covered the 1.0-200 ng ml-1 range with a mean determination coefficient of 0.9996. The quantification limit was 1.0 ng ml-1. This method was used to investigate the bioequivalence of a new formulation of estazolam in drops (test) and the formulation in tablets (reference, ESILGAN). Both formulations were administered at a single dose of 2 mg in a clinical trial carried out on 24 healthy volunteers consisting of 12 males and 12 females, following a crossover randomised design in two periods with wash-out. The test and the reference formulations proved to be fully bioequivalent according to operating guidelines, namely through 90% confidence intervals in the 0.80-1.25 range.

Amlodipine bioequivalence achieved with a very sensitive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric bioassay.

Amlodipine (CAS 88150-42-9) is a 1,4-dihydropyridine derivative, one of the most widely used drugs for the management of essential hypertension. In developing manidipine (CAS 120092-68-4), a new antihypertensive drug, amlodipine was selected as the reference comparator drug in a Phase III double blind clinical trial. However, manidipine is formulated in hard gelatin capsules, whereas amlodipine is presented as a tablet. In order to respect the double blind design of the study, it was necessary to insert the amlodipine tablet into hard gelatin capsules matching those of the new test product. This called for an amlodipine bioequivalence study on two halves of one tablet inserted into a capsule (test formulation) and two halves of one tablet ingested as such (reference formulation). The bioequivalence trial was carried out on 18 healthy volunteers (9 males and 9 females). Subjects were administered a single 10 mg dose of test and reference products according to a two-treatment, two-period, two-sequence crossover design, with a wash-out period of three weeks. Plasma concentrations of the parent compound were monitored over a period of 6 days, considering the long half-life of amlodipine. The drug was quantified with a very sensitive, robust bioassay, which was set up and validated in our laboratory. Peak concentration and area under the curve of plasma concentrations were log-transformed and analyzed to obtain 90% confidence intervals which proved to be 0.94-1.06, and thus within the acceptable bioequivalence range of 0.80-1.25. Time to peak, analyzed according to a non-parametric test, did not show any statistically significant difference between the test and reference. Both the test and reference products showed a similar and very good safety profile. The conclusion is that one amlodipine tablet broken into two halves and administered as such (reference formulation) is bioequivalent with one amlodipine tablet broken into two halves and encapsulated (test formulation).

Leuprolide in a 3-monthly versus a monthly depot formulation for the treatment of symptomatic endometriosis: a pilot study.

An open-label randomized pilot study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of 6 months treatment with leuprolide in a 3-monthly versus a monthly i.m. depot injection for the relief of chronic pelvic pain in women with endometriosis. A total of 30 women aged 18-38 years were allocated to the 3-monthly depot arm (n = 15) or to the monthly depot arm (n = 15) after laparoscopic diagnosis of pelvic endometriosis. Mean (SD) deep dyspareunia scores according to a 0-3 point verbal rating scale decreased from 1.8 (0.9) at baseline to 1.3 (0.7) at the end of treatment in the 3-monthly depot group and from 2.1 (1.2) to 1.3 (0.7) in the monthly depot group. Corresponding values in non-menstrual pain scores fell from 2.1 (0.6) to 1.1 (0.3), and from 2.1 (0.8) to 1.2 (0.4) respectively, without statistically significant differences between the groups. Serum luteinizing hormone (LH) and 17 beta-oestradiol concentrations were significantly suppressed at 12 and 24 weeks compared with baseline values, without differences between the groups. The monthly depot caused a slightly more marked inhibition of serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels with respect to the 3-monthly preparation. Mean (SD) endometriosis scores at baseline and at 6-month follow-up laparoscopy were respectively 32.8 (25.1) and 12.2 (9.3) in the 3-monthly depot group and 29.0 (22.7) and 13.1 (15.3) in the monthly depot group (paired t-test, P < 0.05). Mean percentage decrease in lumbar spine bone mineral density was 5.2% in the former and 4.9% in the latter subjects. In the 3-monthly depot group, 13 women graded the tolerability of their treatment schedule as "good' compared with seven in the monthly depot group (chi 2 = 5.40, P = 0.02).

Ipriflavone prevents the bone mass reduction in premenopausal women treated with gonadotropin hormone-releasing hormone agonists.

In the present study we assessed the effects of ipriflavone in the prevention of increased bone turnover and the rapid bone loss that follows medical induced hypogonadism caused by the administration of a gonadotropin hormone-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH-A). In a double blind, placebo-controlled study, ipriflavone (600 mg/day, tdd (three divided doses)) or identical placebo tablets were given with 500 mg/day of calcium to patients treated with 3.75 mg leuproreline acetate every 30 days, for 6 months. In placebo-treated subjects (n = 39), urinary hydroxyproline excretion and plasma bone GLA protein levels showed a substantial (P < 0.01) increase, while spine bone density and total body bone density significantly (P < 0.01) decreased after 3 and 6 months of GnRH-A administration. Conversely, in ipriflavone treated group (n = 39), no significant difference in bone markers and bone density was evidenced. These data indicate that ipriflavone can restrain the bone remodeling processes and prevent the rapid bone loss that follows medical induced hypogonadism. Thus, ipriflavone administration can be of value in the prevention of osteopenia in women treated with GnRH-A.