Transplacental passage of Pt after treatment with the new triamine complex cis-diaminechloro-[2-(diethylamino) ethyl 4-amino-benzoate, N4]-chloride platinum (II) monohydrochloride monohydrate

Cis-diaminechloro-[2-(diethylamino) ethyl 4-amino-benzoate, N-4]-chloride platinum (II) monohydrochloride monohydrate (DPR) is a monofunctional Pt triamine complex synthesized starting from cisplatin and procaine hydrochloride, characterized by a good antitumor activity coupled with low toxic effects and able to impair prenatal development of mice but at doses outside or just in the upper range of therapeutic doses. In the present paper the transplacental passage of DPR-derived Pt was investigated in CD1 mice on days 9, 13, 16 and 18 of pregnancy, 24 h after ip administration of 21 mg/kg DPR. For comparison, groups of mice were treated with an equivalent Pt-containing dose of cisplatin (10.7 mg/kg). Similarly to cisplatin, small amounts of Pt were detected in fetuses on day 9. From day 13 of gestation the concentration of DPR- and cisplatin-derived Pt increased up to the highest fetal concentrations detected on day 16. On day 18 the concentration of Pt decreased. Most importantly, on days 13 - 18 of pregnancy cisplatin-derived Pt was always significantly higher than that assayed after DPR administration. In addition, on day 13 of pregnancy Pt exposure of fetuses was significantly higher when dams were treated with cisplatin (AUC(0.5 24) = 3.40 vs. 4.95 mug.h/ g). Finally, it is worth noting that serum decay of Pt after DPR or cisplatin administration in adult female mice was similar with AUC(0.13 - 2h) s of 7.5 and 6.6 mug.h/ ml, respectively. When we determined the concentration of Pt into the main organs of fetuses from dams treated with either DPR or cisplatin on day 18 of gestation, we observed a different organ distribution. In fact, while the concentration of DPR-derived Pt was greater in the heart (1.08 +/- 0.30 vs. 0.78 +/- 0.35 mug/g, p < 0.10), an opposite situation was found in the kidney (0.51 +/- 0.20 vs. 0.69 +/- 0.22 mu g/g, p < 0.05). In conclusion, our data show that DPR may pass through the placenta with an efficiency significantly lower than that of cisplatin. This finding may represent one of the possible causes of the lower embryotoxic/teratogenic effect of DPR as compared to cisplatin.