Design, synthesis and in vitro kinetic study of tranexamic acid prodrugs for the treatment of bleeding conditions

Based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations for the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of several maleamic acid amide derivatives four tranexamic acid prodrugs were designed. The DFT results on the acid catalyzed hydrolysis revealed that the reaction rate-limiting step is determined on the nature of the amine leaving group. When the amine leaving group was a primary amine or tranexamic acid moiety, the tetrahedral intermediate collapse was the rate-limiting step, whereas in the cases by which the amine leaving group was aciclovir or cefuroxime the rate-limiting step was the tetrahedral intermediate formation. The linear correlation between the calculated DFT and experimental rates for N -methylmaleamic acids 1 – 7 provided a credible basis for designing tranexamic acid prodrugs that have the potential to release the parent drug in a sustained release fashion. For example, based on the calculated B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) rates the predicted t 1/2 (a time needed for 50 % of the prodrug to be converted into drug) values for tranexamic acid prodrugs ProD 1 – ProD 4 at pH 2 were 556 h [50.5 h as calculated by B3LYP/311+G(d,p)] and 6.2 h as calculated by GGA: MPW1K), 253 h, 70 s and 1.7 h, respectively. Kinetic study on the interconversion of the newly synthesized tranexamic acid prodrug ProD 1 revealed that the t 1/2 for its conversion to the parent drug was largely affected by the pH of the medium. The experimental t 1/2 values in 1 N HCl, buffer pH 2 and buffer pH 5 were 54 min, 23.9 and 270 h, respectively. Graphical Abstract