Metabolism of the areca alkaloids - toxic and psychoactive constituents of the areca (betel) nut

Areca nut (AN) is consumed by millions of people for its therapeutic and psychoactive effects, making it one of the most widely self-administered psychoactive substances in the world. Even so, AN use/abuse is associated with myriad oral and systemic side effects, affecting most organ systems in the body. Alkaloids abundant in the nut (e.g. arecoline, arecaidine, guvacoline, and guvacine), collectively called the areca alkaloids, are presumably responsible for the major pharmacological effects experienced by users, with arecoline being the most abundant alkaloid with notable toxicological properties. However, the mechanisms of arecoline and other areca alkaloid elimination in humans remain poorly documented. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to provide an in-depth review of areca alkaloid pharmacokinetics (PK) in biological systems, and discuss mechanisms of metabolism by presenting information found in the literature. Also, the toxicological relevance of the known and purported metabolic steps will be reviewed. In brief, several areca alkaloids contain a labile methyl ester group and are susceptible to hydrolysis, although the human esterase responsible remains presumptive. Other notable mechanisms include N-oxidation, glutathionylation, nitrosamine conversion, and carbon-carbon double-bond reduction. These metabolic conversions result in toxic and sometimes less-toxic derivatives. Arecoline and arecaidine undergo extensive metabolism while far less is known about guvacine and guvacoline. Metabolism information may help predict drug interactions with human pharmaceuticals with overlapping elimination pathways. Altogether, this review provides a first-of-its-kind comprehensive analysis of AN alkaloid metabolism, adds perspective on new mechanisms of metabolism, and highlights the need for future metabolism work in the field.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:54

Enthalten in:

Drug metabolism reviews - 54(2022), 4 vom: 01. Nov., Seite 343-360

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Myers, Alan L [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

4ALN5933BH
7440-44-0
Alkaloids
Areca nut
Arecaidine
Arecoline
Betel nut
Betel quid
Carbon
Carboxylesterase
Drug interaction
Journal Article
Metabolism
N-methylnipecotic acid
Pharmacokinetics
Review

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 15.12.2022

Date Revised 21.12.2022

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1080/03602532.2022.2075010

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM340712996