Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Comparative Single Dose Pharmacokinetics And Metabolism Of Racemic Primaquine And Its Enantiomers In Human Volunteers, Washim Khan, Yan Hong Wang, Narayan D. Chaurasiya, Np Dhammika Nanayakkara

Faculty and Student Publications

Primaquine (PQ) is a racemic drug used in treatment of malaria for six decades. Recent studies suggest that the two enantiomers of PQ are differentially metabolized in animals, and this results in different pharmacological and toxicological profiles. The current study characterizes the pharmacokinetic (PK) properties, metabolism and tolerability of the individual enantiomers of PQ in healthy human volunteers with normal glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) activity. Two cohorts (at two dose levels), each with 18 subjects, participated in three study arms in a crossover fashion: a single dose of the (−)-R enantiomer (RPQ), a single dose of the (+)-S enantiomer (SPQ), and …