Following oral administration of [14C]loperamide hydrochloride in 1 mg/kg to rats, plasma levels of radioactivity reached maximum at 4 hrs and decreased with a half-life of 4.1 hrs. Radioactivity in 96-hr feces accounted for 95% of the dose, with 30% associated with unchanged drug, while that in urine only 3.5%. Radioactivity in 48-hr bile accounted for 42% of the dose associated entirely with metabolites. 3% of the dose was found at the level of the enterohepatic cycles. These findings show that about 70% of the dose with absorbed by intestine, the target tissue of the drug, a portion (30%) of which was excreted back into intestinal cavity after demethylation, while the remaining 40% transferred to liver by which it was extracted mostly, metabolized extensively and excreted largely into bile, as supported by in vitro demethylating activity in gut segments but none in gut contents, and by in situ marked hepatic extraction of the drug. Main metabolic pathways involved are described.
Following intraperitoneal administration to rats of [14C]loperamide, [carbonyl-14] 4-(p-chlorophenyl)-4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyl-alpha, alpha-diphenyl-1-piperidine butyramide, metabolites in feces and urine were separated, and identified by means of mass spectrometry. In feces, six metabolites were identified in addition to the unchanged drug. The main metabolic pathways involved are dealkylation in the dimethyl amide moiety to give desmethyl- and didesmethylloperamide, both of which were in turn monohydroxylated either in the alpha-phenyl ring or possibly in the alpha-carbon in the piperidine ring. It is noteworthy that metabolites hydroxylated in the piperidine ring were isolated as pyridinium derivatives, possibly due to spontaneous aromatization of its 2,4-dihydroxy-4-(p-chlorophenyl)piperidine ring. In urine, only two metabolites were found and identified to be desmethyl- and didesmethylloperamide, since [14C]loperamide was excreted into urine only in a small amount.
When [14C]haloperidol decanoate, an ester of haloperidol and decanoic acid, was given intramuscularly to rats, levels of total radioactivity and haloperidol decanoate in medial iliac and hypogastric sacral lymph nodes nearest to injection sites were the highest in examined lymph nodes and plasma. These lymph node levels became maximum 16 days after administration and declined gradually with half-life (around 14 days) similar to those of plasma total radioactivity, haloperidol decanoate and haloperidol. However, when the labelled ester was given intravenously, plasma total radioactivity disappeared far more rapidly. Much more radioactivity was found in hind limbs whose femoral muscles had been injected than in other body parts, even at late stages after administration. Haloperidol alone was found in the brain after [14C]haloperidol decanoate was given either intramuscularly or intravenously. It was concluded that haloperidol decanoate injected in rat femoral muscle was rate-limitedly distributed in lymph circulation and that the absorbed ester did not penetrate the brain through the blood-brain barrier but formed haloperidol did.
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