Drug structural interpretation

When working with non-radiolabeled drugs the major challenge is to find metabolites in the biological matrices. Because the enzymes responsible for metabolism are quite well characterized metabolic changes can partially be predicted. For example hydroxylation of the parent drug is in many cases the principal metabolic pathway. From a mass spectrometric point of view it results in an increase of 16 units in the mass spectrum. In the full-scan mode an extracted ion current profile can be used to screen for potential metabolites. In a second step a product ion spectrum is recorded for structural interpretation. Ideally, one would like to obtain relative molecular mass information and the corresponding product ion spectrum in the same LC-MS run. This information can be obtained by data dependant acquisition (DDA), as illustrated in Fig. 1.39. 

A topological index merely represents a mathematical property of a structure. The difficulty and the art in the structure-property-activity studies is to find, design, or recognize descriptors that parallel molecular properties of interest in chemistry and drug design. Topological indices should have structural interpretation, should have useful discrimination power, and should correlate with some molecular property or should considerably improve correlations when combined with other descriptors. Notice the absence of the requirement that descriptors should be unique. It is generally believed that for any set of simple invariants there may exist structures that... 

In this chapter, the voltammetric study of local anesthetics (procaine and related compounds) [14—16], antihistamines (doxylamine and related compounds) [17,22], and uncouplers (2,4-dinitrophenol and related compounds) [18] at nitrobenzene (NB]Uwater (W) and 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE)-water (W) interfaces is discussed. Potential step voltammetry (chronoamperometry) or normal pulse voltammetry (NPV) and potential sweep voltammetry or cyclic voltammetry (CV) have been employed. Theoretical equations of the half-wave potential vs. pH diagram are derived and applied to interpret the midpoint potential or half-wave potential vs. pH plots to evaluate physicochemical properties, including the partition coefficients and dissociation constants of the drugs. Voltammetric study of the kinetics of protonation of base (procaine) in aqueous solution is also discussed. Finally, application to structure-activity relationship and mode of action study will be discussed briefly. 

The current values for ruling out a cardiac etiology for dyspnea are a BNP less than 100 pg/mL (100 ng/L) or an NT-proBNP less than 300 pg/mL (300 ng/L or 35.4 pmol/L). BNP measurements require cautious interpretation, as numerous conditions can also elevate BNP concentrations. These include older age, renal dysfunction, pulmonary embolism, and chronic pulmonary disease. Nesiritide, a recombinant BNP drug, has an identical structure to native BNP and will interfere with the commercial BNP assay, resulting in a falsely elevated level. Therefore, blood for BNP determination should be obtained 2 hours after the end of a nesiritide infusion, or alternatively the NT-proBNP assay should be utilized. 

The bioavailability of drugs from tablets can be markedly influenced by the rate and efficiency of the initial disintegration and dissolution process. Unfortunately, one is faced with a compromise situation — a structure that has both a durable structure prior to administration and the ability to readily break down when placed in the in vivo environment. One of the major factors affecting both these properties is the structure of the tablet, in particular its density (or porosity) and the pore structure. Study of the significance of such measurements and interpretation of the results is a relatively recent field of interest. 

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