CIRCULATING THIOMALATE AFTER ADMINISTRATION OF DISODIUM AUROTHIOMALATE - IMPURITY OR ACTIVE METABOLITE

  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 11  (2) , 150-152
Abstract
During studies of the metabolism of disodium aurothiomalate in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, its pharmaceutical preparation, Myocrisin, contains 4-8% free thiomalate. To establish whether the free thiomalate previously reported in plasma and urine of patients receiving Myocrisin is a true metabolite or results from this impurity, aurothiomalate containing 0.1% thiomalate was prepared. I.m. injection of the purified drug to 2 healthy subjects produced easily detectable levels of thiomalate in both plasma and urine; 7.7 and 9.8%, respectively, of the doses given were recovered in urine as free thiomalate within 4 h. Dissociation of disodium aurothiomalate evidently does occur in vivo, releasing both Au and free thiomalate as potentially active forms.