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Pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of remdesivir and its metabolites nucleotide monophosphate, nucleotide triphosphate, and nucleoside in mice

Wen-juan Hu1, Lu Chang1, Ying Yang1, Xin Wang1, Yuan-chao Xie1, Jing-shan Shen1, Bo Tan2, Jia Liu1
1 Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China
2 Clinical Pharmacokinetic Laboratory, Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China
Correspondence to: Bo Tan: tbot@163.com, Jia Liu: jia.liu@simm.ac.cn,
DOI: 10.1038/s41401-020-00537-9
Received: 3 June 2020
Accepted: 13 September 2020
Advance online: 12 October 2020

Abstract

Remdesivir (RDV) exerts anti-severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 activity following metabolic activation in the target tissues. However, the pharmacokinetics and tissue distributions of the parent drug and its active metabolites have been poorly characterized to date. Blood and tissue levels were evaluated in the current study. After intravenous administration of 20 mg/kg RDV in mice, the concentrations of the parent drug, nucleotide monophosphate (RMP) and triphosphate (RTP), as well as nucleoside (RN), in the blood, heart, liver, lung, kidney, testis, and small intestine were quantified. In blood, RDV was rapidly and completely metabolized and was barely detected at 0.5 h, similar to RTP, while its metabolites RMP and RN exhibited higher blood levels with increased residence times. The area under the concentration versus time curve up to the last measured point in time (AUC0-t) values of RMP and RN were 4558 and 136,572 h∙nM, respectively. The maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) values of RMP and RN were 2896 nM and 35,819 nM, respectively. Moreover, RDV presented an extensive distribution, and the lung, liver and kidney showed high levels of the parent drug and metabolites. The metabolic stabilities of RDV and RMP were also evaluated using lung, liver, and kidney microsomes. RDV showed higher clearances in the liver and kidney than in the lung, with intrinsic clearance (CLint) values of 1740, 1253, and 127 mL/(min∙g microsomal protein), respectively.
Keywords: remdesivir; pharmacokinetics; tissue distribution; nucleotide monophosphate; nucleotide triphosphate; nucleoside

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