Assessment of enantioselective fungal metabolism of zopiclone and analysis by capillary electrophoresis

• Grant number: 12/21578-8
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): February 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): August 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Analytical Chemistry
• Principal researcher: Anderson Rodrigo Moraes de Oliveira
• Grantee: Nayara Cristina Perez de Albuquerque
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Insomnia is a widespread health problem characterized by difficulties in initiating or maintaining sleep for at least four weeks. Studies show that approximately 25-30% of adults suffer from some sleep disorder, and 10% have severe disorders that meet the classification criteria of insomnia. The treatment of this disease is conventionally done by benzodiazepine drugs, which cause dependence of the patient by these drugs. In the early 90s were introduced the "Z-drugs", which have less potential for dependence and they don't cause sedation in the next day, as is the case of zopiclone. The zopiclone is a chiral drug that is extensively metabolized to zopiclone-N-oxide (N-Ox) and N-desmethyl zopiclone (N-Dex) metabolites. Behavioral test for the (S)-N-desmethyl zopiclone showed an anxiolytic effect at all doses evaluated, indicating that this metabolite has a great potential for the treatment of anxiety. An alternative for obtaining this metabolite is the biotransformation, which are transformations caused by microorganisms that cause changes in the chemical structure of the initial compound. In biotransformation processes, the fungi are used most frequently because they are able to perform several types of reactions. In addition, their growth is fast; their cultivation is cheap and the fermentations on a large scale is easily reached. Therefore, this project aims to assess the potential of fungi in performing the enantioselective metabolism of zopiclone and thus to obtain the active metabolite N-desmethyl-zopiclone, preferably in its pure enantiomeric form.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PEREZ DE ALBUQUERQUE, NAYARA CRISTINA; DE GAITANI, CRISTIANE MASETTO; MORAES DE OLIVEIRA, ANDERSON RODRIGO. A new and fast DLLME-CE method for the enantioselective analysis of zopiclone and its active metabolite after fungal biotransformation. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, v. 109, p. 192-201, MAY 10 2015. Web of Science Citations: 12.