Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Publication
    A convenient chemical-microbial method for developing fluorinated pharmaceuticals
    A significant proportion of pharmaceuticals are fluorinated and selecting the site of fluorine incorporation can be an important beneficial part a drug development process. Here we describe initial experiments aimed at the development of a general method of selecting optimum sites on pro - drug molecules for fluorination, so that metabolic stability may be improved. Several model biphenyl derivatives were transformed by the fungus Cunninghamella elegans and the bacterium Streptomyces griseus, both of which contain cytochromes P450 that mimic oxidation processes in vivo, so that the site of oxidation could be determined. Subsequently, fluorinated biphenyl derivatives were synthesised using appropriate Suzuki - Miyaura coupling reactions, positioning the fluorine atom at the pre - determined site of microbial oxidation; the fluorinated biphenyl derivatives were incubated with the microorganisms and the degree of oxidation assessed. Biphenyl-4-carboxylic acid was transformed completely to 4' - hydroxybiphenyl - 4 - carboxylic acid by C. elegans but, in contrast, the 4' fluoro - analogue remained untransformed exemplifying the microbial oxidation – chemical fluorination concept. 2' - Fluoro-and 3' - fluoro - biphenyl - 4 - carboxylic acid were also transformed, but more slowly than the non - fluorinated biphenyl carboxylic acid derivative. Thus, it is possible to design compounds in an iterative fashion with a longer metabolic half - life by identifying the sites that are most easily oxidised by in vitro methods and subsequent fluorination without recourse to extensive animal studies.
    Scopus© Citations 38  435
  • Publication
    Targeted Fluorination of a Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug to Prolong Metabolic Half-life
    In drug design, one way of improving metabolic stability is to introduce fluorine at a metabolically labile site. In the early stages of drug design, identification of such sites is challenging, and a rapid method of assessing the effect of fluorination on a putative drug’s metabolic stability would be of clear benefit. One approach to this is to employ micro-organisms that are established as models of drug metabolism in parallel with the synthesis of fluorinated drug analogues. In this study, we have used the filamentous fungus Cunninghamella elegans to identify the metabolically labile site of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug flurbiprofen, to aid in the design of fluorinated derivatives that were subsequently synthesised. The effect of the additional fluorine substitution on cytochrome P450-catalysed oxidation was then determined via incubation with the fungus, and demonstrated that fluorine substitution at the 4′-position rendered the drug inactive to oxidative transformation, whereas substitution of fluorine at either 2' or 3' resulted in slower oxidation compared to the original drug. This approach to modulating the metabolic stability of a drug-like compound is widely applicable and can be used to address metabolic issues of otherwise good lead compounds in drug development.
      382Scopus© Citations 19
  • Publication
    Evaluation of fluorinated biphenyl ether pro-drug scaffolds employing the chemical-microbial approach
    Incorporation of fluorine in a drug can dramatically affect its metabolism and methods to assess the effect of fluorine substitution on drug metabolism are required for effective drug design. Employing a previously developed chemical-microbial method the metabolism of a series of fluorinated biphenyl ethers was determined. The substrates were synthesized via Ullmann-type condensation reactions between bromotoluene and fluorophenol. The ethers were incubated with the fungus Cunninghamella elegans, which oxidises xenobiotics in an analogous fashion to mammals, generating a number of hydroxylated biphenyl ethers and acids. The propensity of the fluorinated ring to be hydroxylated depended upon the position of the fluorine atom, and the oxidation of the methyl group was observed when it was meta to the oxygen. The experiments demonstrate the applicability of the method to rapidly determine the effect of fluorine substitution on CYP-catalysed biotransformation of pro-drug molecules.
    Scopus© Citations 7  357
  • Publication
    Recent advances in fluorination techniques and their anticipated impact on drug metabolism and toxicity
    (Taylor and Francis, 2015-03-02) ;
    Introduction: Fluorine’s unique physicochemical properties make it a key element for incorporation into pharmacologically active compounds. Its presence in a drug can alter a number of characteristics that affect ADME-Tox, which has prompted efforts at improving synthetic fluorination procedures. Areas covered: This review describes the influence of fluorine on attributes such as potency, lipophilicity, metabolic stability and bioavailablility and how the effects observed are related to the physicochemical characteristics of the element. Examples of more recently used larger scale synthetic methods for introduction of fluorine into drug leads are detailed and the potential for using biological systems for fluorinated drug production is discussed. Expert opinion: The synthetic procedures for carbon-fluorine bond formation largely still rely on decades-old technology for the manufacturing scale and new reagents and methods are required to meet the demands for the preparation of structurally more complex drugs. The improvement of in vitro and computational methods should make fluorinated drug design more efficient and place less emphasis on approaches such as fluorine scanning and animal studies. The introduction of new fluorinated drugs, and in particular those that have novel fluorinated functional groups, should be accompanied by rigorous environmental assessment to determine the nature of transformation products that may cause ecological damage.
    Scopus© Citations 63  717