A Systematic Study of the In Vitro Pharmacokinetics and Estimated Human In Vivo Clearance of Indole and Indazole-3-Carboxamide Synthetic Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists Detected on the Illicit Drug Market

Abstract

In vitro pharmacokinetic studies were conducted on enantiomer pairs of twelve valinate or <i>tert</i>-leucinate indole and indazole-3-carboxamide synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) detected on the illicit drug market to investigate their physicochemical parameters and structure-metabolism relationships (SMRs). Experimentally derived Log D_7.4 ranged from 2.81 (AB-FUBINACA) to 4.95 (MDMB-4en-PINACA) and all SCRAs tested were highly protein bound, ranging from 88.9 ± 0.49% ((<i>R</i>)-4F-MDMB-BINACA) to 99.5 ± 0.08% ((<i>S</i>)-MDMB-FUBINACA). Most tested SCRAs were cleared rapidly in vitro in pooled human liver microsomes (pHLM) and pooled cryopreserved human hepatocytes (pHHeps). Intrinsic clearance (CL_int) ranged from 13.7 ± 4.06 ((<i>R</i>)-AB-FUBINACA) to 2944 ± 95.9 mL min^-1 kg^-1 ((<i>S</i>)-AMB-FUBINACA) in pHLM, and from 110 ± 34.5 ((<i>S</i>)-AB-FUBINACA) to 3216 ± 607 mL min^-1 kg^-1 ((<i>S</i>)-AMB-FUBINACA) in pHHeps. Predicted Human in vivo hepatic clearance (CL_H) ranged from 0.34 ± 0.09 ((<i>S</i>)-AB-FUBINACA) to 17.79 ± 0.20 mL min^-1 kg^-1 ((<i>S</i>)-5F-AMB-PINACA) in pHLM and 1.39 ± 0.27 ((<i>S</i>)-MDMB-FUBINACA) to 18.25 ± 0.12 mL min^-1 kg^-1 ((<i>S</i>)-5F-AMB-PINACA) in pHHeps. Valinate and <i>tert</i>-leucinate indole and indazole-3-carboxamide SCRAs are often rapidly metabolised in vitro but are highly protein bound in vivo and therefore predicted in vivo CL_H is much slower than CL_int. This is likely to give rise to longer detection windows of these substances and their metabolites in urine, possibly as a result of accumulation of parent drug in lipid-rich tissues, with redistribution into the circulatory system and subsequent metabolism.