ADMET studies

Historically, drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity ADMET) studies in animal models were performed after the identification of a lead compound. In order to avoid costs, nowadays pharmaceutical companies evaluate the ADMET profiles of potential leads at an earlier stage of the development... 

Davis AM, Riley RJ. Predictive ADMET studies. The challenges and the opportunities. Curr Opin Chem Biol 2004 8 378-86. 

ADMET experiments and in silico predictions allow for the timely identification of potential liabilities in order to discard compounds with unfavorable ADMET properties early according to the fail-early-fail-cheaply paradigm. In the hit and lead finding phase, in vitro and/or in silico ADMET studies play a major role in the identification of critical parameters that need to be considered to reach the next milestone in discovery. Compounds are usually preferred as hits and in particular as leads, which exhibit the least liabilities to be optimized. A first analysis should indicate clearly that liabilities appear to be optimizable, for example, strong target-related activity of compounds can be kept while structure-ADMET-properties are improving. 

ADMET of av j-dicncs has been a focus of research in the Wagener laboratories for many years now, where we have studied this chemistry to explore its viability in synthesizing polymers possessing both precisely designed microstructures as well as a variety of functionalities. The requirements for this reaction, such as steric and electronic factors, functionalities allowed, appropriate choice of catalyst, and necessary length or structure of the diene, have been examined.3,12-14 A detailed discussion will be presented later in this chapter with a brief synopsis of general rules for successful ADMET polymerization presented here. 

ADMET is quite possibly the most flexible transition-metal-catalyzed polymerization route known to date. With the introduction of new, functionality-tolerant robust catalysts, the primary limitation of this chemistry involves the synthesis and cost of the diene monomer that is used. ADMET gives the chemist a powerful tool for the synthesis of polymers not easily accessible via other means, and in this chapter, we designate the key elements of ADMET. We detail the synthetic techniques required to perform this reaction and discuss the wide range of properties observed from the variety of polymers that can be synthesized. For example, branched and functionalized polymers produced by this route provide excellent models (after quantitative hydrogenation) for the study of many large-volume commercial copolymers, and the synthesis of reactive carbosilane polymers provides a flexible route to solvent-resistant elastomers with variable properties. Telechelic oligomers can also be made which offer an excellent means for polymer modification or incorporation into block copolymers. All of these examples illustrate the versatility of ADMET. 

ADMET polymers are easily characterized using common analysis techniques, including nuclear magnetic resonance ( H and 13C NMR), infrared (IR) spectra, elemental analysis, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), vapor pressure osmometry (VPO), membrane osmometry (MO), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The preparation of poly(l-octenylene) (10) via the metathesis of 1,9-decadiene (9) is an excellent model polymerization to study ADMET, since the monomer is readily available and the polymer is well known.21 The NMR characterization data (Fig. 8.9) for the hydrogenated versions of poly(l-octenylene) illustrate the clean and selective nature of ADMET. 

Work in this study PE model polymers made by ADMET with precise placement of methyl branches... 

Another class of silicon-containing polymers that have great potential to be extremely useful precursor materials are poly(chlorocarbosilanes).14f 46 Poly (chlorocarbosilanes) are not useful without modification because of the rapid hydrolysis of Si—Cl bonds, forming HC1 and an insoluble crosslinked polymer network. However, nucleophilic substitution of these Si—Cl bonds with various reagents produces materials widi a broad range of properties that are determined by the nature of the nucleophile used.47 Poly(chlorocarbosilanes) can be easily synthesized by ADMET (Fig. 8.18) without any detrimental side reactions, since the Si—Cl bond is inert to both catalysts 12 and 14. Early studies produced a polymer with Mn = 3000.14f... 

Other commercially relevant monomers have also been modeled in this study, including acrylates, styrene, and vinyl chloride.55 Symmetrical a,dienes substituted with the appropriate pendant functional group are polymerized via ADMET and utilized to model ethylene-styrene, ethylene-vinyl chloride, and ethylene-methyl acrylate copolymers. Since these models have perfect microstructure repeat units, they are a useful tool to study the effects of the functionality on the physical properties of these industrially important materials. The polymers produced have molecular weights in the range of 20,000-60,000, well within the range necessary to possess similar properties to commercial high-molecular-weight material. 

The Jamieson paper reports the results of a number of studies, some successful, others not. Failures can be ascribed to the difficulties encountered in log P control. The first evident trouble concerns the choice of the lipophilicity descriptor many prefer log P, but this choice is questionable as has been outlined by Lombardo (see Chapter 16). Secondly, variations in lipophilicity profile influence not only hERG activity, but also target selectivity and also ADMET properties. Lipophilicity is a bulk property and its modification can involve different moieties of the molecules. Once the chemical modulation has been designed, but before moving to the bench, the research group should predict the consequences of this change on each step of the drug s action, but unfortunately this is not always done. 

Hansch and Leo [13] described the impact of Hpophihdty on pharmacodynamic events in detailed chapters on QSAR studies of proteins and enzymes, of antitumor drugs, of central nervous system agents as well as microbial and pesticide QSAR studies. Furthermore, many reviews document the prime importance of log P as descriptors of absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMET) properties [5-18]. Increased lipophilicity was shown to correlate with poorer aqueous solubility, increased plasma protein binding, increased storage in tissues, and more rapid metabolism and elimination. Lipophilicity is also a highly important descriptor of blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability [19, 20]. Last, but not least, lipophilicity plays a dominant role in toxicity prediction [21]. 

Poly(l,4-naphthylenevinylenes) have been prepared by metathesis polymerization of benzobarrelenes [181,182] and the photoluminescence properties of homopolymers and block-copolymers have been studied in some detail [183]. PPV also has been prepared via ROMP of [2.2]paracyclophane-l,9-diene [184] and ROMP of a paracyclophene that contains a solubilizing leaving group [185]. The resulting polymer is converted to PPV upon acid catalysis at room temperature. ADMET of 2,5-dialkyl-l,4-divinylbenzenes using Mo or W catalysts has... 

The balance of this chapter deals with the specific chemistry associated with producing hydrocarbon and functionalized polymers in addition to providing the most recent studies available on appropriate catalyst systems for ADMET condensation chemistry. Current work on the use of the ADMET reaction for modeling commercial high volume polymers such as polyethylene is also presented. 

With the details associated with ADMET chemistry reasonably well understood, we have embarked on a study of the synthesis of well-controlled polymer structures via metathesis polycondensation chemistry [37]. A series of well-defined polyolefins have been designed to model the crystallization behavior of polyethylene and its related copolymers, including new materials synthesized by metallocene-based catalysts. This synthesis concept has been reduced to practice, and polymers that will aid in the understanding of branching within polyethylene itself have been produced. 

This is just the first example of how the ADMET reaction can be used to model branching behavior and precisely control the structure in olefin-based polymer backbones. Other polymers under study include polyalcohols, polyvinyl acetates, and ethylene-styrene copolymers. The ultimate goal of this research is to be able to define, or even predict, crystallization limits and behavior for many polymers, some of which have not yet been prepared in a crystallized form. 

The next section describes the utilization of //PLC for different applications of interest in the pharmaceutical industry. The part discusses the instrumentation employed for these applications, followed by the results of detailed characterization studies. The next part focuses on particular applications, highlighting results from the high-throughput characterization of ADMET and physicochemical properties (e.g., solubility, purity, log P, drug release, etc.), separation-based assays (assay development and optimization, real-time enzyme kinetics, evaluation of substrate specificity, etc.), and sample preparation (e.g., high-throughput clean-up of complex samples prior to MS (FIA) analysis). 

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