Elsevier

Biochemical Pharmacology

Volume 37, Issue 4, 15 February 1988, Pages 737-742
Biochemical Pharmacology

Drug-protein conjugates—XV: A study of the disposition of D-penicillamine in the rat and its relationship to immunogenicity

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-2952(88)90148-7Get rights and content

Abstract

The disposition of [14C]d-penicillamine (PA) was investigated in vitro and in vivo with male Wistar rats. Irreversible binding of [14C]PA to isolated rat plasma proteins in vitro reached a maximum of 20.6% of total radioactivity at 6 hr. Irreversibly bound [14C]PA could be dissociated with dithiothreitol, demonstrating that conjugation was via disulphide linkage. Three hours after i.v. administration of [14C]PA (27 μmol/kg) to rats 100% of plasma radioactivity was irreversibly bound, representing approximately 3.5% of the dose. Further studies on the disposition of PA-plasma protein conjugates snowed that dissociation occurred readily in vivo: the plasma half-life of the conjugate was approximately 3 hr. Free [14C]PA was the major urinary metabolite after administration of both free and conjugated drug. These studies show that the disposition of PA is similar to that reported for the structurally related sulphydryl drug captopril (CP). Free PA (340 μmol/kg and 3.4 mmol/kg) administered i.p. and i.m. daily for 4 days at one monthly intervals, and also PA-KLH conjugate (100 μg/rat) administered by single i.p. injection at monthly intervals with and without Freund's complete adjuvant, failed to induce PA-specific IgG or IgM antibody responses detectable by ELISA. In contrast, CP (270μmol/kg), administered by the same protocol as free PA, induced a CP-specific IgG antibody response after the third series of monthly injections. These data suggest that the difference in immunogenicity between PA and CP arises from a difference in the intrinsic immunogenicity of the haptens, rather than from their disposition.

References (19)

  • B.K. Park et al.

    Biochem. Pharmac.

    (1982)
  • J.H.K. Yeung et al.

    Biochem. Pharmac.

    (1985)
  • J.D. Sun et al.

    Chem. Biol. Interact.

    (1980)
  • J.H.K. Yeung et al.

    Biochem. Pharmac.

    (1983)
  • N.R. Kitteringham et al.

    Biochem. Pharmac.

    (1987)
  • B.K. Park et al.

    Biochem. Pharmac.

    (1987)
  • Lancet

    (1973)
  • Distamine Data Sheet

    (1984)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (24)

  • Free-radical degradation of high-molecular-weight hyaluronan induced by ascorbate plus cupric ions. Testing of bucillamine and its SA981-metabolite as antioxidants

    2011, Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis
    Citation Excerpt :

    The typical daily oral dose of d-pen administered to RA patients is 0.5–2.0 g. The serum half-life of a single oral dose of the drug is 1–3 h [11]. l-Cysteine (Fig. 1e), a naturally occurring amino acid, contributes to the intracellular thiol pool and is a precursor of intracellular l-glutathione biosynthesis [6,12,13].

View all citing articles on Scopus

Present address: Department of Pharmacology, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

View full text