Niraparib, sold under the brand name Zejula, is an

anti-cancer medication Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs ( chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard regimen. Chemotherapy may be given with a cu ...

used for the treatment of epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer. It is taken

by mouth Oral administration is a route of administration whereby a substance is taken through the Human mouth, mouth, swallowed, and then processed via the digestive system. This is a common route of administration for many medications. Oral administ ...

. It is a

PARP inhibitor PARP inhibitors are a class of drugs that are a group of pharmacological inhibitors of the enzyme poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP), which plays a role in repairing DNA in damaged cells. Medical uses of these drugs include the treatment of heri ...

. The most common side effects include

nausea Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. It can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of the throat. Over 30 d ...

(feeling sick),

thrombocytopenia In hematology, thrombocytopenia is a condition characterized by abnormally low levels of platelets (also known as thrombocytes) in the blood. Low levels of platelets in turn may lead to prolonged or excessive bleeding. It is the most common coag ...

(low blood platelet counts), tiredness and weakness,

anemia Anemia (also spelt anaemia in British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen. This can be due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin availabl ...

(low red blood cell counts),

constipation Constipation is a bowel dysfunction that makes bowel movements infrequent or hard to pass. The Human feces, stool is often hard and dry. Other symptoms may include abdominal pain, bloating, and feeling as if one has not completely passed the ...

vomiting Vomiting (also known as emesis, puking and throwing up) is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenteritis, pre ...

, abdominal (belly) pain,

neutropenia Neutropenia is an abnormally low concentration of neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) in the blood. Neutrophils make up the majority of circulating white blood cells and serve as the primary defense against infections by destroying bacteria ...

(low levels of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell),

insomnia Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder where people have difficulty sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep for as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low ene ...

(difficulty sleeping), headache, lack of appetite,

diarrhea Diarrhea (American English), also spelled diarrhoea or diarrhœa (British English), is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements in a day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration d ...

dyspnea Shortness of breath (SOB), known as dyspnea (in AmE) or dyspnoea (in BrE), is an uncomfortable feeling of not being able to breathe well enough. The American Thoracic Society defines it as "a subjective experience of breathing discomfort that ...

(difficulty breathing),

hypertension Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a Chronic condition, long-term Disease, medical condition in which the blood pressure in the artery, arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms i ...

(high blood pressure), back pain, dizziness, cough, joint pain, hot flushes and decrease in white blood cells. Niraparib was approved for medical use in the United States and in the European Union in 2017.

Medical uses

Niraparib is

indicated In medicine, an indication is a valid reason to use a certain test, medication, procedure, or surgery. There can be multiple indications to use a procedure or medication. An indication can commonly be confused with the term diagnosis. A diagnosis ...

for the maintenance treatment of adults with recurrent epithelial ovarian,

fallopian tube The fallopian tubes, also known as uterine tubes, oviducts or salpinges (: salpinx), are paired tubular sex organs in the human female body that stretch from the Ovary, ovaries to the uterus. The fallopian tubes are part of the female reproduct ...

, or

primary peritoneal cancer Primary peritoneal cancer or carcinoma is also known as serous surface papillary carcinoma, primary peritoneal carcinoma, extra-ovarian serous carcinoma, primary serous papillary carcinoma, and psammomacarcinoma. It was historically classified und ...

who are in complete or partial response to

platinum-based chemotherapy Platinum-based antineoplastic drugs (informally called platins) are chemotherapeutic agents used to treat cancer. Their active moieties are coordination complexes of platinum. These drugs are used to treat almost half of people receiving chemothe ...

. In October 2019, the indication for niraparib was expanded to include people with advanced ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer treated with three or more prior chemotherapy regimens and whose cancer is associated with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)-positive status. HRD is defined by either a deleterious or suspected deleterious BRCA mutation, or genomic instability in patients with disease progression greater than six months after response to the last platinum-based chemotherapy. In April 2020, the indication for niraparib was expanded to include the maintenance treatment of adults with advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in a complete or partial response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy. In the European Union, niraparib is indicated: as monotherapy for the maintenance treatment of adults with advanced epithelial (FIGO Stages III and IV) high-grade ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer who are in response (complete or partial) following completion of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy; and as monotherapy for the maintenance treatment of adults with platinum sensitive relapsed high grade serous epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in response (complete or partial) to platinum based chemotherapy.

Contraindications

No contraindications are listed in the prescribing information.

Side effects

The most common side effects in studies were low blood cell counts, namely

(in 61% of patients, severe in 29%),

(in 50%, severe in 25%) and

(in 30%, severe in 20%). Other, mostly mild to moderate side effects included

fatigue Fatigue is a state of tiredness (which is not sleepiness), exhaustion or loss of energy. It is a signs and symptoms, symptom of any of various diseases; it is not a disease in itself. Fatigue (in the medical sense) is sometimes associated wit ...

, and

. In a study running over 250 days (

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

), 15% of patients had to permanently discontinue niraparib due to adverse effects.

Interactions

No clinical interaction studies have been performed. The potential for interactions with other drugs is low as niraparib and its main

metabolite In biochemistry, a metabolite is an intermediate or end product of metabolism. The term is usually used for small molecules. Metabolites have various functions, including fuel, structure, signaling, stimulatory and inhibitory effects on enzymes, c ...

M1 do not significantly interact with any of the important

cytochrome P450 Cytochromes P450 (P450s or CYPs) are a Protein superfamily, superfamily of enzymes containing heme as a cofactor (biochemistry), cofactor that mostly, but not exclusively, function as monooxygenases. However, they are not omnipresent; for examp ...

liver enzymes ''

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning ''in glass'', or ''in the glass'') Research, studies are performed with Cell (biology), cells or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in ...

''. Niraparib, but not M1, is transported by

P-glycoprotein P-glycoprotein 1 (permeability glycoprotein, abbreviated as P-gp or Pgp) also known as multidrug resistance protein 1 (MDR1) or ATP-binding cassette sub-family B member 1 (ABCB1) or cluster of differentiation 243 (CD243) is an important protein ...

and

BCRP ATP-binding cassette super-family G member 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ABCG2'' gene. ABCG2 has also been designated as CDw338 (cluster of differentiation w338). ABCG2 is a translocation protein used to actively pump drugs ...

, but does not significantly inhibit them. Neither niraparib nor M1 significantly interact with any of the other important transporter proteins.

Pharmacology

Mechanism of action

Niraparib is an

inhibitor Inhibitor or inhibition may refer to: Biology * Enzyme inhibitor, a substance that binds to an enzyme and decreases the enzyme's activity * Reuptake inhibitor, a substance that increases neurotransmission by blocking the reuptake of a neurotransmi ...

of the enzymes

PARP1 Poly DP-ribosepolymerase 1 (PARP-1) also known as NAD+ ADP-ribosyltransferase 1 or poly DP-ribosesynthase 1 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''PARP1'' gene. It is the most abundant of the PARP family of enzymes, accounting for 90% o ...

and PARP2.

Pharmacokinetics

73% of ingested niraparib is absorbed in the gut, and it reaches highest

blood plasma Blood plasma is a light Amber (color), amber-colored liquid component of blood in which blood cells are absent, but which contains Blood protein, proteins and other constituents of whole blood in Suspension (chemistry), suspension. It makes up ...

concentrations after about three hours, independently of food intake. In the circulation, 83% of the substance are bound to

plasma protein Plasma proteins, sometimes referred to as blood proteins, are proteins present in blood plasma. They perform many different functions, including transport of hormones, vitamins and minerals in activity and functioning of the immune system. Other b ...

s. It is inactivated by

carboxylesterase The enzyme carboxylesterase (or carboxylic-ester hydrolase, EC 3.1.1.1; systematic name carboxylic-ester hydrolase) catalysis, catalyzes reactions of the following form: :a Ester, carboxylic ester + H2O \rightleftharpoons an Alcohol (chemistry), ...

s to the main metabolite M1, the

carboxylic acid In organic chemistry, a carboxylic acid is an organic acid that contains a carboxyl group () attached to an Substituent, R-group. The general formula of a carboxylic acid is often written as or , sometimes as with R referring to an organyl ...

derivative, which is subsequently

glucuronidated Glucuronidation is often involved in drug metabolism of substances such as drugs, pollutants, bilirubin, androgens, estrogens, mineralocorticoids, glucocorticoids, fatty acid derivatives, retinoids, and bile acids. These linkages involve glycosidi ...

. The mean

biological half-life Biological half-life (elimination half-life, pharmacological half-life) is the time taken for concentration of a drug, biological substance (such as a medication) to decrease from its maximum concentration (chemistry), concentration (Cmax (pharm ...

is 36 hours. 47.5% of the substance are found in the urine and 38.8% in the feces. Unmetabolised niraparib accounts for 11% in the urine and 19% in the feces.

Chemistry

The drug is used in form of the salt niraparib

tosylate In organic chemistry, a toluenesulfonyl group (tosyl group, abbreviated Ts or TosIn this article, "Ts", unless otherwise stated, means tosyl, not tennessine.) is a univalent functional group with the chemical formula . It consists of a tolyl ...

monohydrate, which is white to off-white, non-

hygroscopic Hygroscopy is the phenomenon of attracting and holding water molecules via either absorption (chemistry), absorption or adsorption from the surrounding Natural environment, environment, which is usually at normal or room temperature. If water mol ...

crystals.

Studies

A 2012 study in a

cell line An immortalised cell line is a population of cells from a multicellular organism that would normally not proliferate indefinitely but, due to mutation, have evaded normal cellular senescence and instead can keep undergoing division. The cells ...

found that PARP inhibitors exhibit cytotoxic effects not based solely on their enzymatic inhibition of PARP, but by their trapping of PARP on damaged DNA, and the strength of this trapping activity was ordered niraparib >> olaparib >>

veliparib Veliparib (ABT-888) is a potential anti-cancer drug acting as a PARP inhibitor. It kills cancer cells by blocking a protein called PARP, thereby preventing the repair of DNA or genetic damage in cancer cells and possibly making them more suscepti ...

History

Niraparib was granted fast track designation by the US

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

(FDA), and Tesaro submitted a

new drug application The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) New Drug Application (NDA) is the vehicle in the United States through which drug sponsors formally propose that the FDA approve a new pharmaceutical for sale and marketing. Some 30% or less of initial ...

in 2016. It was approved on 27 March 2017 in the US, and approved in European Union on 16 November 2017. In a study with 553 patients,

progression-free survival Progression-free survival (PFS) is "the length of time during and after the treatment of a disease, such as cancer, that a patient lives with the disease but it does not get worse". In oncology, PFS usually refers to situations in which a tumor is ...

(PFS) for patients with a deleterious or suspected deleterious

BRCA mutation A ''BRCA'' mutation is a mutation in either of the ''BRCA1'' and ''BRCA2'' genes, which are tumour suppressor genes. Hundreds of different types of mutations in these genes have been identified, some of which have been determined to be harmful, ...

in the

germline In biology and genetics, the germline is the population of a multicellular organism's cells that develop into germ cells. In other words, they are the cells that form gametes ( eggs and sperm), which can come together to form a zygote. They dif ...

was 21.0 months under niraparib therapy, as compared to 5.5 months under

placebo A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...

. Patients without such a mutation had a PFS of 9.3 months under niraparib versus 3.9 months under placebo. The US

(FDA) granted the application for niraparib fast track,

priority review Priority review is a program of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite the review process for drugs that are expected to have a particularly great impact on the treatment of a disease. The priority review voucher program ...

breakthrough therapy Breakthrough therapy is a United States Food and Drug Administration designation that expedites drug development that was created by Congress under Section 902 of the 9 July 2012 Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act. The FDA's "b ...

, and

orphan drug An orphan drug is a medication, pharmaceutical agent that is developed to treat certain rare medical conditions. An orphan drug would not be profitable to produce without government assistance, due to the small population of patients affected by th ...

designations.

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar , Medicine Indazolecarboxamides Drugs developed by GSK plc Orphan drugs PARP inhibitors Piperidines