AHFS/Drugs.com Monograph ATC code M01CC01 (WHO) Molar mass 149.212 g/mol | Routes of
administration by mouth (capsules) CAS ID 52-67-5 | |
 | ||
Trade names Cuprimine, Cuprenyl, Depen, others Pregnancy
category AU: D
US: D (Evidence of risk) Legal status US: ℞-only
In general: ℞ (Prescription only) | ||
Penicillamine meaning
Penicillamine, sold under the trade names of Cuprimine among others, is a medication primarily used for the treatment of Wilson's disease. It is also used for people with kidney stones who have high urine cystine levels, rheumatoid arthritis, copper poisoning, and lead poisoning. It is taken by mouth.
Contents
Common side effects include rash, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea, and low blood white blood cell levels. Other serious side effects include liver problems, obliterative bronchiolitis, and myasthenia gravis. It is not recommended in people with lupus erythematosus. Use during pregnancy may result in harm to the baby. Penicillamine works by binding heavy metals such that they can be removed from the body in the urine.
Penicillamine was approved for medical use in the United States in 1970. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system. The wholesale cost in the developing world is about 0.55 to 1.20 USD a dose. In the United States treatment costs more than 200 USD per month.
Medical uses
It is used as a chelating agent:
Penicillamine can be used as a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) to treat severe active rheumatoid arthritis in patients who have failed to respond to an adequate trial of conventional therapy, although it is rarely used today due to availability of TNF inhibitors and other agents, such as tocilizumab and tofacitinib. Penicillamine works by reducing numbers of T-lymphocytes, inhibiting macrophage function, decreasing IL-1, decreasing rheumatoid factor, and preventing collagen from cross-linking.
Adverse effects
Bone marrow suppression, dysgeusia, anorexia, vomiting and diarrhea are the most common side effects, occurring in ~20–30% of the patients treated with penicillamine.
Other possible adverse effects include:
Chemistry
Penicillamine is a trifunctional organic compound, consisting of a thiol, an amine, and a carboxylic acid. It is very similar chemically to the α-amino acid cysteine, but with geminal methyl groups α to the thiol (SH) group. Like most amino acids, it is a colorless solid that exists in the zwitterionic form. Of its two enantiomers, L-penicillamine is toxic because it inhibits the action of pyridoxine (also known as vitamin B6). L-penicillamine is a metabolite of penicillin. It has no antibiotic properties.
History
John Walshe first described the use of penicillamine in Wilson's disease in 1956. He had discovered the compound in the urine of patients (including himself) who had taken penicillin, and experimentally confirmed that it increased urinary copper excretion by chelation. He had initial difficulty convincing several world experts of the time (Denny Brown and Cumings) of its efficacy, as they held that Wilson's disease was not primarily a problem of copper homeostasis but of amino acid metabolism, and that dimercaprol should be used as a chelator. Later studies confirmed both the copper-centered theory and the efficacy of D-penicillamine. Walshe also pioneered other chelators in Wilson's such as triethylene tetramine, 2 HCl, and tetrathiomolybdate.
Penicillamine has been used in rheumatoid arthritis since the first successful case in 1964. Cuprimine remains in production (2016) by Aton Pharma.