The use of dicarboxylic acids in drug metabolism

What is it about?

Although it is believed widely that the various routes of xenobiotic metabolism are now all known and effectively understood, occasionally there emerges a metabolite that signals a novel biotransformation pathway, especially where the xenobiotic may in some way interact with the myriad processes of intermediary metabolism.There are a few reports in the literature where saturated short-chain dicarboxylic acids have been exploited as conjugating agents and these unusual xenobiotic metabolites subsequently excreted intact in the urine.

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Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash

Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Dicarboxylic acid condensation with xenobiotic molecules may occur at nitrogen centres, or more precisely with a primary or secondary amine, that is at nitrogen still possessing a replaceable hydrogen atom. Both aliphatic amines and arylamines may be substrates with many of the free amino groups being formed by previous N-dealkylation reactions. Hopefully, awareness of this metabolic route will be raised and researchers will be enthused to search for this type of conjugate.