Computational chemical methods have been used to correlate the molecular properties of the 10 ACE inhibitors (captopril, enalapril,
perindopril, lisinopril, ramipril, trandolapril, quinapril, fosinopril, benazepril, and cilazapril) and some of their active
metabolites (enalaprilat, perindoprilat, ramiprilat, trandolaprilat, quinaprilat, fosinoprilat, benazeprilat, and cilazaprilat).
The computed p
K
a values correlate well with the available experimental values. In the dicarboxylic ACE inhibitors, the carboxyalkyl carboxylate
group of the ACE inhibitors studied is more acidic than the C-terminal carboxylate. However, at physiological pH = 7.4 both
carboxyl groups of ACE inhibitors are completely ionized and the dicarboxyl-containing ACE inhibitors behave as strong acids.
The available experimental partition coefficients of these ACE inhibitors investigated are well reproduced by the neural network-based
ALOGPs and the fragment-based KoWWiN methods. All parent drugs (and prodrugs), with the exception of fosinopril, are compounds
with low lipophilicity. Calculated p
K
a, lipophilicity, solubility, absorption, and polar surface area of the most effective ACE inhibitors for the prevention of
myocardial infarction, perindopril and ramipril, were found similar. Therefore, it is probable that the experimentally observed
differences in the survival benefits in the first year after acute myocardial infarction in patients 65 years of age or older
correlate closely to the physicochemical and pharmacokinetic characteristics of the specific ACE inhibitor that is used.
Key words ACE inhibitors - pK
a
- lipophilicity - solubility - absorption - polar surface area