Plasma protein binding, pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution and CYP450 biotransformation studies of fidarestat by ultra high performance liquid chromatography–high resolution mass spectrometry

•First bioanalytical method has been developed and validated for fidarestat.•9.5% of the free form of the drug may be available for the pharmacological action.•CYP1A2 and CYP2D6 appeared to be the key enzymes for the biotransformation.•It is a weak inhibitor of CYP1A2, CYP2C19, CYP2C9, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4.•It may not alter the pharmacokinetic and clearance of other co-administered drug. Fidarestat, an aldose reductase inhibitor, has been used for the treatment of the diabetic associated complications such as retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy. To better understand the metabolism and pharmacokinetics of fidarestat, we have evaluated plasma protein binding, pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution of the drug and its conjugated metabolites and CYP450 biotransformation by liquid chromatography–high resolution mass spectrometry. Effective chromatographic separation of fidarestat and hydrochlorothiazide (IS) in rat plasma and tissues was achieved on Hypersil gold C-18 column in an isocratic elution mode. For detection, a high-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometer with heated electrospray ionization inlet in the negative ion mode was used. High-resolution extracted ion chromatograms for each analyte were obtained by processing the full-scan MS mode with 5ppm mass tolerance. The impact of plasma protein binding with the drug and conjugated metabolites of the drug on pharmacokinetics has been determined. The study indicated that 9.5% of free form of fidarestat may be pharmacologically active and the Cmax for free fidarestat was found to be 80.30±6.78ng/mL. The AUC0–t and AUC0–∞ were found to be 185.46±32 and 195.92±15.06ngh/mL, respectively. Among tissues, the maximum observed distribution was found to be in kidney followed by liver and heart. Docking experiments and in vitro CYP450 reaction phenotyping revealed that two CYP1A2 and CYP2D6 are involved in the phase I metabolism of fidarestat. Oxidative deamination and N/O glucuronidation are the major phase I and phase II metabolites, respectively. In vitro CYP450 inhibition assay of fidarestat for drug–drug interaction showed weak inhibition and may not alter pharmacokinetics, distribution or clearance of other co-administered drug.