The orally active renin inhibitor A-74273. In vivo and in vitro morpholine ring metabolism in rats, dogs, and humans.

The metabolism and disposition of [14C]A-74273--a potent, orally active renin inhibitor--were investigated in beagle dogs and Sprague-Dawley rats. Two male and two female dogs received a single 10 mg/kg oral or 1 mg/kg intravenous dose in a cross-over experiment and urine and feces were collected for 5 days. After both intravenous and oral dosing, > 92% of the dose was recovered in the feces and < 3% was recovered in the urine. The predominance of hepatobiliary elimination in the clearance of A-74273 was verified in a bile-exteriorized dog, where 79.8% of a 1 mg/kg intravenous dose was excreted in the bile within 6 hr after administration. Similarly, administration of a 1 mg/kg intravenous dose to a bile-exteriorized rat resulted in biliary excretion of 60.5% of the dose within 6 hr. Radio-HPLC analysis of bile and feces from both species indicated extensive metabolism of A-74273 to three major morpholine ring-opened metabolites; the ethanolamine A-78242, the amine A-78030, and the carboxylic acid A-81307. These three metabolites each contributed 12.0-20.2% of the biliary radioactivity after intravenous dosing, while unchanged A-74273 contributed 5-17%. Incubation of [14C]A-74273 with rat, dog, and human liver microsomes afforded nearly equal amounts of the three in vivo metabolites for all three species, suggesting that the in vitro system was representative of A-74273 in vivo metabolism and that humans should also convert A-74273 to the morpholine ring-opened metabolites in vivo.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)