Chronic (1-year) safety evaluation of ipazilide fumarate, an antiarrhythmic agent, administered orally to rats.

Ipazilide fumarate (WIN 54177-4) is a chemically novel antiarrhythmic agent that prolongs ventricular refractoriness and possesses antiectopic activity. The compound is being developed as oral and iv therapy for ventricular and supraventricular arrhythmias. Since ipazilide therapy may require long-term use, a 1-year oral gavage study (daily dosages of 20, 80, or 160 mg/kg) was conducted in rats. Controls received the purified water vehicle. Treatment-related clinical signs were limited to post-dosing salivation. Increased relative liver weight (females, at 80 and 160 mg/kg) was correlated with centrilobular hypertrophy, but was not associated with significant increased serum liver enzymes activities. These liver weight changes were interpreted as an adaptive metabolic response and were not considered toxicologically significant. An increased incidence of centrilobular hepatocellular vacuolation representing lipid accumulation over that observed for male controls occurred for males in all ipazilide-treated groups. This observation, however, was not correlated with elevated hepatic enzyme activities. Hepatocellular basophilic foci were observed for females only (80 and 160 mg/kg groups); however, the significance of this lesion is unclear. Transient dosage-related duodenal villous atrophy/sloughing was observed for males from the 80 and 160 mg/kg groups. Mild increases in hemoglobin, hematocrit, urea, and creatinine (160 mg/kg), attributed to treatment, were considered of minor toxicologic importance. Likewise, no clinical or anatomical pathologic observations that may indicate cardiac toxicity were determined. It is concluded that a dosage of 20 mg/kg (two to three times the clinical efficacious dosage) was considered a no-effect dosage level since it did not produce any effects of toxicological significance.