Species Difference in Hydrolysis of an Ester-type Prodrug of Levodopa in Human and Animal Plasma: Different Contributions of Alpha-1 Acid Glycoprotein

Abstract

Previously, we found that ONO-2160, an ester-type prodrug of levodopa (3-hydroxy-l-tyrosine), was mainly hydrolyzed in human plasma by α₁-acid glycoprotein (AGP) with a partial contribution of albumin. In this study, we investigated whether ONO-2160 was hydrolyzed in the plasma of preclinical species (dog, rabbit, rat, and mouse) and humans and whether AGP and albumin are involved in its hydrolysis. ONO-2160 was hydrolyzed to some extent in the plasma of all tested species with the order of magnitude mouse > human > rabbit > rat > dog. Except for dogs, ONO-2160 was partially hydrolyzed by animal AGP and albumin. This indicated that, similar to albumin, AGP possesses esterase-like activity in mice, rats, and rabbits, as well as humans. A comparison of the values of intrinsic clearance per milliliter of plasma demonstrated that AGP was the major contributor to the hydrolysis of ONO-2160 in rabbit plasma, whereas albumin was primarily responsible for the hydrolysis of ONO-2160 in mouse plasma. This was confirmed by experiments using AGP-knockout mouse plasma. This study reports the first evidence for the existence of species differences in the hydrolysis of ONO-2160 in plasma related to the different contributions of AGP and albumin.

Keywords: drug binding protein; ester-type prodrug; plasma protein; serum albumin; species difference; α1-acid glycoprotein (AGP).