A topological-substructural molecular design (TOPS-MODE) approach to determining pharmacokinetics and pharmacological properties of 6-fluoroquinolone derivatives

Abstract

The topological-substructural molecular design approach was used to estimate the human bioavailability (F) and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC 90) against Streptococcus pneumoniae from a data set of 17 and 19 fluoroquinolone derivatives, respectively. Both pharmacokinetics and pharmacological properties were well described by the present approach. The total spectral moments and local spectral moments that include the different fluoroquinolone rings, polar and non-polar areas and their interactions were calculated and weighted with the standard dipole moments and the electronegative difference between the atoms that form a bond. In order to obtain a qualitative model that permits the classification of drugs with high and moderate bioavailability, a linear discriminant analysis was carried out. The percentage of correct classification was 100% for compounds of the training set. The leave-one-out cross validation procedure showed an 88.23% of correct classification. Also, a quantitative model, by the piecewise linear regression was developed. The theoretically predicted values for human bioavailability was assessed by a correlation with in vivo rat bioavailability and the regression equation was used to predict this biopharmaceutical property for two new pre-clinical 6-fluoroquinolone derivatives. On the other hand, a linear regression model that explained the 84% of variance was developed to predict the MIC 90 values. Finally, the role of a pharmacokinetic and pharmacological relationship in the design of new fluoroquinolones was evaluated in the Sitafloxacin framework, where 13 substituents were analyzed; halogens and methoxy groups had the best contributions to both properties. The present approach proved to be a good method for studying the pharmacokinetics and the pharmacological properties of new 6-fluoroquinolone candidates in drug development studies.