Biological Activity
Clozapine N-oxide (CNO) is a major metabolite of the anti-psychotic drug clozapine. Clozapine N-oxide is a agonist for the chemogenetic Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drug (DREADD) system.
In Vitro
No in vitro data are provided in the current product source. Contact us for further information.
In Vivo
After a single intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of Clozapine N-oxide (1 mg/kg) into mice, Clozapine N-oxide (CNO) plasma levels peak at 15 min and are very low after 2 h. Acutely administered CNO can be metabolically converted to Clozapine in other species such as human and guinea-pig. The metabolites that may form after chronic administration of CNO to DREADD-expressing mice (or other species) have not been studied systematically. However, even if back-transformation to Clozapine occurs after chronic CNO administration, it should be noted that Clozapine is a more potent (by ~10-fold) DREADD agonist than CNO itself. Moreover, confounding biological effects of potential CNO metabolites can be easily identified by including both saline- and CNO-treated WT animals in a particular DREADD study. Despite the short plasma half-life of CNO in mice, the biological effects that have been described after acute treatment of DREADD-expressing experimental animals are usually much longer (6-10 h). One possibility is that CNO tends to accumulate in tissues, although other scenarios are also feasible[1]. Using a general pharmacokinetic model for the interconversion process, the mean total clearances of Clozapine and Clozapine N-oxide (CNO) are 28.45 L/hr and 45.30 L/hr, respectively[2].
References & source
Published experimental findings depend on the model and assay conditions. They do not guarantee equivalent performance in every application. For laboratory research use only.