Specificity of PGE2 analogs interaction between food intake and antisecretory effect.

We evaluated the degree of acid suppression that occurred when enprostil, a dehydro-prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) methyl ester analog, was administered before (anti-cibum AC) or after a meal (post-cibum PC). A double-blind, randomized, single-dose, parallel-group design compared enprostil, 35 mcg, 25 min AC or 5 min PC, with placebo AC or PC in 30 healthy adults. Enprostil or placebo was administered at time 0 and a standard beef test meal was ingested at 25 min, followed 5 min later by enprostil or placebo. A second test meal was consumed at 210 min. Intragastric titration was performed from 30 to 390 min. Subjects receiving enprostil-AC or enprostil-PC secreted less (P less than 0.05) acid compared to placebo; however, the antisecretory effects of enprostil-AC or enprostil-PC were similar throughout the duration of study. Minor adverse reactions were present in 13/30 subjects and confined to those receiving enprostil. In contrast to the previously reported potentiation of trimoprostil, a trimethyl-desoxy-PGE2 analog, antisecretory activity by food, enprostil-PC did not result in more prominent or prolonged suppression of gastric acid secretion than enprostil-AC. There is an apparent specificity of different oral PGE2 analogs with regard to their antisecretory activity in the presence or absence of food.