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Mexiletine, 1-(2,6-dimethylphenoxy)-2-aminopropane (Mexitil), is an orally effective agent useful in the treatment of serious ventricular arrhythmias. This paper describes a gas chromatographic-mass spectrophotometric assay with selected-ion monitoring for the measurement of plasma or serum mexiletine levels. The drug and internal standard (p-chlorophenylalanine methyl ester) were extracted from plasma into ethyl acetate-hexane-methanol (60:40:1, v/v). After separation and evaporation of the organic phase, the drug and internal standard were derivatized to their pentafluoropropyl derivatives prior to analysis. The reproducibility of the daily standard curve yielded mean inter- and intra-day coefficients of variability from 0.7 to 11.0%. The coefficients of variability for control plasma samples (0.5 and 1.0 micrograms/ml) ranged from 2.6 to 5.0% and the accuracy of the assay was 106 +/- 6 and 100 +/- 5% for the low and high level controls respectively. The limit of quantitation for the assay was 0.1 micrograms/ml. No interfering peaks were detected in any patient samples. This method can be used as a primary analytical method to measure mexiletine plasma levels or can serve as a convenient back-up method to HPLC procedures when contaminating peaks coelute with mexiletine.

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The metabolism of the antisickling agent 3,4-dichlorobenzyloxyacetic acid (3,4-DCBAA) was examined after ip administration to rats. Within 5 days after administration of radiolabeled 3,4-DCBAA, 77.4 +/- 4.6% of the dose was recovered in the urine and only 3.2 +/- 0.5% was recovered in the feces. Metabolites in the urine were isolated and characterized by HPLC, electron impact MS, and LC/MS, and their identities were confirmed by comparing their spectra with those of synthetic standards. Quantitation of these urinary metabolites revealed that the majority of the radioactive dose was excreted as a taurine conjugate (60.1 +/- 4.4%), while lesser amounts were excreted as 3,4-dichlorohippurate, unchanged 3,4-DCBAA, the glycine conjugate of 3,4-DCBAA, and a polar unknown which is believed to be glycolic acid. A pathway involving an initial O-dealkylation at the benzyl carbon of 3,4-DCBAA and proceeding through the glycine conjugation of 3,4-dichlorobenzoic acid has been proposed to explain the formation of 3,4-dichlorohippurate and the polar unknown. The extensive conjugation of 3,4-DCBAA with taurine is an unprecedented observation in rats, which usually utilize glycine for amino acid conjugation reactions. Further studies with 3,4-DCBAA may provide insight into the enzymatic mechanisms of taurine conjugation, which are not well defined at this time.

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The metabolism of furazolidone by rat liver and Escherichia coli was characterized in vitro under aerobic and anaerobic incubation conditions. Rat liver 9000g supernatant rapidly metabolized 14C-furazo-lidone to more polar metabolites in the presence or absence of oxygen when NADPH was provided as a cofactor. At least five polar radiolabeled metabolites were detected in these incubations by high pressure liquid chromatography. Moreover, a significant (30-40%) proportion of the total radiolabeled metabolites remained tightly associated with liver protein despite repeated organic solvent extractions of the tissue. The major solvent-extractable metabolites produced under aerobic and anaerobic incubation conditions were isolated and analyzed by mass spectrometry. The mass spectra indicated that these derivatives possessed the same chemical structure. Subsequently, this metabolite was unequivocally identified as 3-(4-cyano-2-oxobutylideneamino)-2-oxazolidinone, an end product of reductive metabolism of the nitro group of furazolidone. The formation of the reduced metabolite under aerobic conditions indicated that this metabolic pathway was markedly less sensitive to oxygen than many previously studied nitroreduction reactions catalyzed by mammalian enzymes. This NADPH-dependent, oxygen-insensitive nitroreductase activity was further localized to the microsomal fraction of rat liver. E. coli also rapidly metabolized furazolidone (FZN) to a complex series of metabolites, including the reduced cyano metabolite, under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Sonic lysis of the bacteria released an NADPH-dependent, oxygen-insensitive nitroreductase which converted FZN to the cyano metabolite and other unidentified derivatives. The complete reduction of FZN by the solubilized bacterial enzyme was strongly inhibited by the addition of the thiol nucleophile glutathione to the incubation medium.

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We have compared the metabolite profiles generated from the rat liver incubation of monofluorinated derivatives of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene. These monofluoro analogs are known to exhibit varying degrees of carcinogenicity. In this study we observed that the presence of fluorine substituents blocked metabolism at the fluorinated positions, some of which may be critical for biological activity. Furthermore, we also found that the fluorine substituents affected the chemical reactivity of the 5,6-arene oxide metabolites in terms of their ability to undergo methanolysis.

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The isolated hepatocyte preparation has become an increasingly popular system for studying xenobiotic metabolism, and there is a need for methods of determining metabolic activity. Described here is a simple and sensitive radiometric assay for barbiturate N-demethylase activity in the isolated hepatocyte suspension. The demethylation of 1,3-dimethylphenobarbital is determined by measuring the formation of its only significant metabolite, N-methylphenobarbital. The reaction is a typical P-450-mediated dealkylation.

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The discriminative attributes of drugs were used to assess the degree to which several anticonvulsants have behavioral effects resembling those of pentobarbital. Rats were trained to make alternative responses to obtain water, depending on whether they had been injected IP with pentobarbital (10 mg/kg) or saline 10 min before the session. The pentobarbital response was chosen in tests with phenobarbital, dimethylphenobarbital, or methsuximide in the anticonvulsant dosage range. Increasing doses increased the percentage pentobarbital choice. Response rate was generally increased by doses that increased percentage of pentobarbital choice. The rats predominantly chose the saline response when administered phenytoin, primidone, or phenylethylmalondiamide, even at doses that were sufficiently high to reduce the response rate. The results suggest that different types of depressant effects are associated with the anticonvulsants tested.

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The N-demethylation of N,N'-dimethylphenobarbital by isolated rat hepatocytes was increased severalfold by pretreatment of animals with sodium phenobarbital (75 mg/kg/day ip for 3 days). The apparent extent of induction depended on the length of the cell incubation, being 3-fold when calculated after a 5-min incubation and 5-fold when calculated after a 60-min incubation. This difference was due to the fact that metabolism by "induced" hepatocytes more closely approached linearity over a 60-min period. Microsomal cytochrome P-450 levels were increased 3-fold upon phenobarbital treatment; during incubations of less than 30 min duration, increased N-demethylase activity could be entirely accounted for by this increase in cytochrome P-450. When protein levels were measured directly in microsomes isolated from hepatocyte homogenates, the levels in "induced" hepatocytes were approximately 45% higher than control. However, phenobarbital treatment had no significant effects on total cellular protein or on the protein distribution in various subcellular fractions when appropriate adjustments were made for apparent microsomal sedimentation with the 9000 g pellet. These data suggest that hepatic microsomes prepared from "induced" hepatocytes may sediment differently from those from untreated animals. The N-demethylation of N,N'-dimethylphenobarbital is an excellent model reaction to study in isolated hepatocytes because the primary metabolite, N-methylphenobarbital, is not further metabolized to an appreciable extent.

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A double-blind crossover study with imipramine was conducted in 10 patients with absence and myoclonic-astatic seizures who had not responded to conventional medications. Imipramine produced a significant initial decrease in seizure frequency in 5 of the 10 patients, and in 2 patients the beneficial effect was maintained for more than 1 year. An open trial of imipramine in another 16 patients showed an initial reduction in seizure frequency in 10 patients (63 percent), and this decrease persisted for more than 1 year in 4 patients (25 percent). The effect of imipramine on the EEG did not always correlate with the clinical response. Serum content of imipramine in the patients who showed a long-term response was 40 to 120 ng per milliliter, on a total daily dose of 0.7 to 3.5 mg per kilogram. These results suggest that imipramine is a valuable addition to the treatment of seizures.

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The metabolism of 14C-triamterene (TA), 2,4,7-triamino-6-phenylpteridine, was investigated in rats. After administration of 14C-TA (2 mg/kg, sc), 45% and 50% of the total radioactivity was excreted in urine and feces, respectively, during 72 hr. 14C-TA and its metabolites were separated by paper chromatography and countercurrent distribution. Unchanged TA in the urine and feces accounted for 72-79% of the dose. The major metabolites in the excreted dose were free p-hydroxytriamterene (10-15%) and its conjugate (1-5%). Three hours after administration of the drug, the major metabolites were not found in gastrointestinal contents or urine when the bile duct was cannulated. They were formed in the liver and secreted in bile. A minor unidentified metabolite (2% of the dose) was also formed in the liver and excreted in urine and feces.

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