Tacrine and its 7-methoxy derivate; time-change concentration in plasma and brain tissue and basic toxicological profile in rats

Abstract

The search for tacrine derivatives, as potential Alzheimer´s disease treatment, is still being at the forefront of scientific efforts. 7-MEOTA was found to be a potent, centrally active acetylcholinesterase inhibitor free of the serious side effects observed for tacrine. Unfortunately, a relevant argumentation about pharmacokinetics and potential toxicity is incomplete; information about tacrine derivatives absorption and especially CNS penetration are still rare as well as detailed toxicological profile in vivo. Although the structural changes between these compounds are not so distinctive, differences in plasma profile and CNS targeting were found. The maximum plasma concentration were attained at 18^th min (tacrine; 38.20 ± 3.91 ng/ml and 7-MEOTA; 88.22 ± 15.19 ng/ml) after i.m. application in rats. Although the brain profiles seem to be similar; tacrine achieved 19.34 ± 0.71 ng/ml in 27 min and 7-MEOTA 15.80 ± 1.13 ng/ml in 22 min; the tacrine Kp (AUC_brain/AUC_plasma) fit 1.20 and was significantly higher than 7-MEOTA Kp 0.10. Administration of tacrine and 7-MEOTA showed only mild elevation of some biochemical markers following single p.o. application in 24 hours and 7 days. Also histopathology revealed only mild-to-moderate changes following repeated p.o. administration for 14 days. It seems that small change in tacrine molecule leads to lower ability to penetrate through the biological barriers. The explanation that lower p.o. acute toxicity of 7-MEOTA depends only on differences in metabolic pathways may be now revised to newly described differences in pharmacokinetic and toxicological profiles.

Keywords:

• Tacrine
• 7-methoxytacrine
• acetylcholinesterase inhibitors
• Alzheimer’s disease
• blood-brain barrier
• blood biochemistry
• organ toxicity

Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thanks Mrs. Bc. Martina Tumova for skillful technical assistance in sample preparation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the grant No. 18-13283S (Grant Agency, Czech Republic) and by the Long-Term Developing Plan 1011 (Ministry of Defense, Czech Republic).