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Background: The anesthetic ketamine after intravenous dosing is nearly completely metabolized to R- and S-stereoisomers of the active norketamine (analgesic, psychoactive) and 2,6-hydroxynorketamine (potential analgesic, antidepressant) as well as the inactive dehydronorketamine. Oral administration favors the formation of 2,6-hydroxynorketamines via extensive presystemic metabolism. The authors hypothesized that plasma exposure to 2,6-hydroxynorketamines relative to the psychoactive ketamine is greater after prolonged-release ketamine tablets than it is after intravenous ketamine.Methods: Pharmacokinetics of ketamine after intravenous infusion (5.0 mg) and single-dose administrations of 10, 20, 40, and 80 mg prolonged-released tablets were evaluated in 15 healthy white human subjects by means of a controlled, ascending-dose study. The stereoisomers of ketamine and metabolites were quantified in serum and urine by validated tandem mass-spectrometric assays and evaluated by noncompartmental pharmacokinetic analysis.Results: After 40 mg prolonged-release tablets, the mean ± SD area under the concentrations-time curve ratios for 2,6-hydroxynorketamine/ketamine were 18 ± 11 (S-stereoisomers) and 30 ± 16 (R-stereoisomers) compared to 1.7 ± 0.8 and 3.1 ± 1.4 and after intravenous infusion (both P < 0.001). After 10 and 20 mg tablets, the R-ratios were even greater. The distribution volumes at steady state of S- and R-ketamine were 6.6 ± 2.2 and 5.6 ± 2.1 l/kg, terminal half-lives 5.2 ± 3.4 and 6.1 ± 3.1 h, and metabolic clearances 1,620 ± 380 and 1,530 ± 380 ml/min, respectively. Bioavailability of the 40 mg tablets was 15 ± 8 (S-isomer) and 19 ± 10% (R-isomer) and terminal half-life 11 ± 4 and 10 ± 4 h. About 7% of the dose was renally excreted as S-stereoisomers and 17% as R-stereoisomers.Conclusions: Prolonged-release ketamine tablets generate a high systemic exposure to 2,6-hydroxynorketamines and might therefore be an efficient and safer pharmaceutical dosage form for treatment of patients with chronic neuropathic pain compared to intravenous infusion.Editor’s Perspective: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trospium chloride, a muscarinic receptor blocker, is poorly absorbed with different rates from areas in the jejunum and the cecum/ascending colon. To evaluate whether organic cation transporter (OCT) 1, OCT2 and multidrug and toxin extrusion (MATE) 1 and MATE2‐K are involved in pharmacokinetics, competitions with ranitidine, a probe inhibitor of the cation transporters, were evaluated in transfected HEK293 cells. Furthermore, a drug interaction study with trospium chloride after intravenous (2 mg) and oral dosing (30 mg) plus ranitidine (300 mg) was performed in 12 healthy subjects and evaluated by noncompartmental analysis and population pharmacokinetic modeling. Ranitidine inhibited OCT1, OCT2, MATE1, and MATE2‐K with half maximal inhibitory concentration values of 186 ± 25 µM, 482 ± 105 µM, 134 ± 37 µM, and 35 ± 11 µM, respectively. In contrast to our hypothesis, coadministration of ranitidine did not significantly decrease oral absorption of trospium. Instead, renal clearance was lowered by ∼15% (530 ± 99 vs 460 ± 120 mL/min; P <.05). It is possible that ranitidine was not available in competitive concentrations at the major colonic absorption site, as the inhibitor is absorbed in the small intestine and undergoes degradation by microbiota. The renal effects apparently result from inhibition of MATE1 and/or MATE2‐K by ranitidine as predicted by in vitro to in vivo extrapolation. However, all pharmacokinetic changes were not of clinical relevance for the drug with highly variable pharmacokinetics. Intravenous trospium significantly lowered mean absorption time and relative bioavailability of ranitidine, which was most likely caused by muscarinic receptor blocking effects on intestinal motility and water turnover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quaternary ammonium compound trospium chloride is poorly absorbed from 2 "absorption windows" in the jejunum and cecum/ascending colon, respectively. To confirm whether intestinal P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp) is involved, a 4‐period, crossover drug interaction study with trospium chloride after intravenous (2 mg) and oral administration (30 mg) without and after comedication of clarithromycin (500 mg), an inhibitor for P‐gp, was initiated in 12 healthy subjects. Pharmacokinetics of trospium was evaluated using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, noncompartmental evaluation, and pharmacokinetic modeling. Trospium chloride was poorly absorbed after oral administration (absolute bioavailability, ∼8%–10%). About 30% of the bioavailable dose fraction was absorbed from the "narrow window". Comedication with clarithromycin increased steady‐state distribution volumes by ∼27% (P < .01). Bioavailability was not increased as hypothesized. The geometric mean ratios (90% confidence interval) for area under the plasma concentration–time curve, maximum concentration, and renal clearance accounted for 0.75 (0.56–1.01), 0.64 (0.45–0.89), and 1.00 (0.90–1.13), respectively. The amount of trospium absorbed from the "narrow window" was reduced in all subjects but from the "wider window" in only 9 of them. Bioavailability was strongly predicted by the maximum absorption rate of trospium in the distal "window" (rs2 = 0.910, P <.0001). In conclusion, the P‐gp inhibitor clarithromycin significantly increases distribution volumes but not oral absorption of trospium. The amount absorbed from the "narrow window" was lowered in all subjects. However, the extent of all influences seems not to be of clinical relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intestinal P-glycoprotein is regio-selectively expressed and is a high affinity, low capacity efflux carrier for the cationic, poorly permeable trospium. Organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1) provides lower affinity but higher capacity for trospium uptake. To evaluate regional intestinal permeability, absorption profiles after gastric infusion of trospium chloride (30 mg/250 ml = [ I ] 2 ) for 6 h and after swallowing 30 mg immediate-release tablets in fasted and fed healthy subjects, were evaluated using an inverse Gaussian density function to model input rate and mean absorption time (MAT). Trospium chloride was slowly absorbed (MAT ∼10 h) after gastric infusion involving two processes with different input rates, peaking at about 3 h and 7 h. Input rates and MAT were influenced by dosage form and meal. In conclusion, trospium is absorbed from two “windows” located in the jejunum and cecum/ascending colon, whose uptake capacity might result from local abundance and functional interplay of P-glycoprotein and OCT1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study temperature, pH and pressure profiles of nine healthy human volunteers were investigated after ingestion of the SmartPill® under conditions simulating the fasted state treatment in bioavailability and bioequivalence studies. In a previously published study the same subjects received the SmartPill® under fed conditions as recommended by the FDA. Since large non-digestible objects are mainly emptied during phase III of the interdigestive migrating motor complex, the gastric residence time of the SmartPill® was found to be clearly shorter under fasting conditions. Intragastric pH values during the initial 5 min were similar with an identical median value of pH 4.6. Interestingly, the median lowest observed intragastric pH value in fasted state was about one pH unit higher than that under fed conditions. Highest pressure activity was observed within the stomach, in relation to gastric emptying. In fasted state, pressure values upon gastric emptying varied strongly between 30 mbar and 304 mbar, whereas after fed state ingestion values of at least 240 mbar could always be observed. The data showed highly variable gastrointestinal parameters even under fasting conditions which must be considered when evaluating clinical studies and developing biorelevant in vitro test methods especially for large non-disintegrating dosage forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]