In vitro metabolism, disposition, preclinical pharmacokinetics and prediction of human pharmacokinetics of DNDI-VL-2098, a potential oral treatment for Visceral Leishmaniasis

Graphical abstractPharmacokinetic profile of DNDI-VL-2098 in rat after iv and po administration.Download high-res image (168KB)Download full-size image

The in vitro metabolism and in vivo pharmacokinetic (PK) properties of DNDI-VL-2098, a potential oral agent for Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) were studied and used to predict its human pharmacokinetics. DNDI-VL-2098 showed a low solubility (10 μM) and was highly permeable (>200 nm/s) in the Caco-2 model. It was stable in vitro in liver microsomes and hepatocytes and no metabolite was detectable in circulating plasma from dosed animals suggesting very slow, if any, metabolism of the compound. DNDI-VL-2098 was moderate to highly bound to plasma proteins across the species tested (94-98%). DNDI-VL-2098 showed satisfactory PK properties in mouse, hamster, rat and dog with a low blood clearance (<15% of hepatic blood flow except hamster), a volume of distribution of about 3 times total body water, acceptable half-life (1-6 h across the species) and good oral bioavailability (37-100%). Allometric scaling of the preclinical PK data to human gave a blood half-life of approximately 20 h suggesting that the compound could be a once-a-day drug. Based on the above assumptions, the minimum efficacious dose predicted for a 50 kg human was 150 mg and 300 mg, using efficacy results in the mouse and hamster, respectively.