In vitro and In vivo Drug Metabolism Analysis of BPI-460372 - A Covalent TEAD1/3/4 Inhibitor

BPI-460372 is an orally available, covalent, irreversible small molecule inhibitor of the transcriptional enhanced associate domain (TEAD) 1/3/4, which is currently in clinical development for the treatment of cancers with Hippo pathway alterations.

This study aimed to determine the cytochrome P450 (CYP) phenotyping, metabolic stability, and in vitro and in vivo metabolic profile of BPI-460372.

The CYP phenotyping and metabolic stability were assessed by measuring the depletion of substrate. The metabolic profile in hepatocytes and rat and dog plasma was analyzed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography combined with Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Orbitrap-HRMS).

BPI-460372 was mainly metabolized by CYP2D6, CYP3A4, and CYP1A2. BPI-460372 exhibited low clearance in human, monkey, and rat hepatocytes, while moderate clearance in dog and mouse hepatocytes. A total of 10 metabolites were identified in five species of hepatocytes, and no human-unique metabolite was detected. In rat plasma and dog plasma, the primary metabolites were M407 (BPI-460430) and M423 (BPI-460456), respectively. The two metabolites were quantitatively determined in rat and dog plasma in pharmacokinetic and toxicological studies. The major metabolic site was 2-fluoro-acrylamide, and major metabolic pathways in hepatocytes, and rat and dog plasma involved oxidative defluorination, hydration, glutathione (GSH) conjugation, hydrolysis, cysteine conjugation, and N-acetyl cysteine conjugation. β-lyase pathway contributed to the metabolism of BPI-460372 in rats to a certain degree.

This study elucidated the metabolism of BPI-460372 and provided a basis for pharmacokinetic and toxicological species selection, human pharmacokinetics prediction, and assessment of clinical co-administration limitations and possible metabolic pathways in humans.