Penicillin stability

The first penicillins, e.g. benzylpenicillin, were excellent antibiotics but had very poor oral bioavailability due to their instability in gastric acid. The chemical modifications made in order to improve penicillin stability are discussed in Chapter 22. 

Carbanions stabilized by phosphorus and acyl substituents have also been frequently used in sophisticated cyclization reactions under mild reaction conditions. Perhaps the most spectacular case is the formation of an ylide from the >S-lactam given below using polymeric Hflnig base (diisopropylaminomethylated polystyrene) for removal of protons. The phosphorus ylide in hot toluene then underwent an intramolecular Wlttig reaction with an acetyl-thio group to yield the extremely acid-sensitive penicillin analogue (a penem I. Ernest, 1979). 

One approach to combating antibiotic resistance caused by P-lactamase is to inhibit the enzyme (see Enzyme inhibition). Effective combinations of enzyme inhibitors with P-lactam antibiotics such as penicillins or cephalosporins, result in a synergistic response, lowering the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) by a factor of four or more for each component. However, inhibition of P-lactamases alone is not sufficient. Pharmacokinetics, stability, ability to penetrate bacteria, cost, and other factors are also important in determining whether an inhibitor is suitable for therapeutic use. Almost any class of P-lactam is capable of producing P-lactamase inhibitors. Several reviews have been pubUshed on P-lactamase inhibitors, detection, and properties (8—15). 

Substitution of penicillins by 6a-methoxy was found to be compatible with an a-acidic side chain in terms of antibacterial activity, but less beneficial when the side chain contained an a-acyl or a-ureido substituent. However, analogues of the ureido penicillin VX-VC-43 (Table 2) containing a 6a-methoxy substituent (10) were found to combine good stabiUty to P-lactamase and relatively high antibacterial activity (37). Following an extensive program to identify other 6a-substituents that would stabilize the acyl and ureido series of penicillins, the 6a-formamido series (11) represented by formidacillin (BRL 36650) (Table 2) was developed (38). 

The trihydrate which is obtained in high yields, is relatively insoluble in water, possesses high biological stability and can be obtained by contacting, at a temperature not above 60°C, an acid addition salt of D-(-)-a-aminobenzylpenicillin with an amine in a water-immiscible solvent containing at least 3 mols of water per mol of such penicillin. 

Fig. 5.2 (Opposite) Examples of the side chain R in various penicillins (the numbers 1-19 correspond to those in Table 5.1). Numbers 20 (mecillinam) and 21 (pivmecillinam) are 6-/3-amidinopenicillanic acids (mecillinams). Number 11 (temocillin) has a methoxy (—OCH3) group at position 6a this confers high /3-lactamase stability on the molecule.

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, penicillins are very unstable in aqueous solution by virtue of hydrolysis of the p-lactam ring. A successful method of stabilizing penicillins in liquid dosage forms is to prepare their insoluble salts and formulate them in suspensions. The reduced solubility of the drug in a suspension decreases the amount of drug available for hydrolysis. An example of improved stability of a... 

If the solubility of a drug is to be reduced to enhance stability or to prepare a suspension, the for-mulator may prepare water-insoluble salts. A classic example is procaine penicillin G, the decreased solubility (7 mg/mL) of which, when compared with the very soluble penicillin G potassium, is utilized to prepare stable parenteral suspensions. Another alternative to preparing an insoluble drug is to use the parent acidic or basic drug and to buffer the pH of the suspension in the range of minimum solubility. 

Values of /c2, the maximal rate constant for disappearance of penicillin at pH 10.24 and 31.5°, and Ka, the cycloheptaamylose-penicillin dissociation constant are presented in Table VII. Two features of these data are noteworthy. In the first place, there is no correlation between the magnitude of the cycloheptaamylose induced rate accelerations and the strength of binding specificity is again manifested in a rate process rather than in the stability of the inclusion complex. Second, the selectivity of cycloheptaamylose toward the various penicillins is somewhat less than the selectivity of the cycloamyloses toward phenyl esters—rate accelerations differ by no more than fivefold throughout the series. As noted by Tutt and Schwartz (1971), selectivity can be correlated with the distance of the reactive center from the nonpolar side chain. Whereas the carbonyl carbon of phenyl acetates is only two atoms removed from the phenyl ring, the reactive center... 

Tor [7] developed a new method for the preparation of thin, uniform, self-mounted enzyme membrane, directly coating the surface of glass pH electrodes. The enzyme was dissolved in a solution containing synthetic prepolymers. The electrode was dipped in the solution, dried, and drained carefully. The backbone polymer was then cross-linked under controlled conditions to generate a thin enzyme membrane. The method was demonstrated and characterized by the determination of acetylcholine by an acetylcholine esterase electrode, urea by a urease electrode, and penicillin G by a penicillinase electrode. Linear response in a wide range of substrate concentrations and high storage and operational stability were recorded for all the enzymes tested. 

In contrast, with penicillins, cephalosporins, and monobactams where the substituents are cis to each other across the C3 - C4 bond, clockwise rotation can occur without conflict with protein side chains, and will leave the path open for the water molecule to attack and hydrolyze the ester group in B (Scheme 10). Thus, czs-substituted monobactam, as well as penicillins and cephalosporins are rapidly hydrolyzed by class C enzymes (Scheme 10). If this rotation could be prevented by a suitable structural modification, the access of the water molecule to the ester bond will be blocked, which would result in increased stability of the acyl-enzyme complex. 

Fig. 10 Dependence of transition state stabilization (pKTS) on acyl chain length for the cleavage of 6-acy(penicillins and 7-acylcephalosporins by 0-lactamase I. Data from Tables A6.9 and A6.10.

The rate of acid-catalyzed degradation of the penicillins also depends largely on the nature of their acylamido side chain. Structure-activity-relationship studies undertaken for the rational design of orally active penicillins have shown that the stability in gastric juice increases with the sum of Taft s inductive substituent constants (of values) of the 6-amino side chain [95]. 

Now we turn to a discussion of the influence of a-substitution at C(6) or C(7) on the chemical reactivity of the lactam ring (Table 5.4,B). This substitution has been introduced mainly to improve lactamase stability (see Sect. 5.2.2.2). The insertion of an additional a-substituent at C(6) or C(7) of penicillins or cephalosporins, respectively, has a relatively small effect on the rate of base hydrolysis [82] [83], 6a-Methoxypenicillin is hydrolyzed at a rate that is approximately half that observed for the unsubstituted parent penicillin. This decrease is due mainly to unfavorable steric interaction between the... 

Efforts to produce more-stable compounds have yielded meropenem (5.47), which, although superior to other carbapenems, is less-stable than penicillins or cephalosporins. This lack of stability is confirmed by the formation of breakdown products identified as the dimers (5.48a and b) resulting from intermolecular aminolysis of the /Madam ring [100],... 

Transition metal ions cause a dramatic increase in the rate of hydrolysis of /Madam antibiotics [75][133][134], For example, copper(II) and zinc(II) ions increase the rate of alkaline hydrolysis ca. 108-fold and 104-fold, respectively [76], It has been suggested that the metal ion coordinates with both the carboxylate group and the /3-lactam N-atom of penicillins (A, Fig. 5.20). This complex stabilizes the tetrahedral intermediate and, thus, facilitates cleavage of the C-N bond catalyzed by the HO ion [74] [75], Such a model appears applicable also to clavulanic acid, imipenem, and monobactams, but it re-... 

Fig. 5.20. Modes of coordination of transition metal ions with /3-lactam antibiotics. Complex A In penicillins, the metal ion coordinates with the carboxylate group and the /3-lactam N-atom. This complex stabilizes the tetrahedral intermediate and facilitates the attack of HO-ions from the bulk solution. Complex B In benzylpenicillin Cu11 binds to the deprotonated N-atom of the amide side chain. The hydrolysis involves an intramolecular attack by a Cu-coordinated HO- species on the carbonyl group. Complex C In cephalosporins, coordination of the metal ion is by the carbonyl O-atom and the carboxylate group. Because the transition state is less stabilized than in A, the acceleration factor of metal ions for the hydrolysis of cephalosporins is lower than for penicillins. Complex D /3-Lactams with a basic side chain bind the metal ion to the carbonyl and the amino group in their side chain. This binding mode does not stabilize the tetrahedral transition complex and, therefore, does not affect the rate of... 

Surface-active agents used as adjuvants in pharmaceutical preparations to improve drug dissolution may affect the stability of /3-lactams. Thus, the presence of micelles of cetyl(trimethyl)ammonium bromide (CTAB) enhanced up to 50-fold the rate of alkaline hydrolysis of penicillins [140]. In the case of cephalosporins, micelle-promoted catalysis of the intramolecular degradation process (see Sect 5.2.2) was also observed [85][141], It has been proposed that the negatively charged penicillins and cephalosporins are attracted by the cationic micelles. This attraction increases substrate concentration in the micellar phase, in turn accelerating the rate of HO- ion attack. Ion exchange at the micellar surface and electrostatic stabilization of the transition state may also contribute to the increased rate [142][143],... 

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