Endocrine Abstracts

The concurrence of glucose intolerance, hypertension, dyslipidemia and obesity has been termed metabolic syndrome. Each component of the metabolic syndrome is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes type 2, the combination of these risk factors elevating the rates and severity of cardiac pathology.

The therapeutic use of irbesartan, a selective blocker of the AT1 receptors, administered in arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease and diabetic nephropathy, is extremely important due to the presence of these receptors both centrally and in the periphery.

Melatonin is an endogenous indoleamine hormone synthesized by the pineal gland. Melatonin release into the circulation is augmented in darkness and decreased during exposure to light, and facilitates the synchronization of the body’s physiologic systems to circadian patterns. Melatonin shows properties of a powerful antioxidant, at sufficiently high concentrations as a direct radical scavenger, but, at lower, near-physiological levels, as a regulator of redox-relevant enzymes, suppressor of prooxidant excitatory and inflammatory processes and as a mitochondrial modulator. Increased oxidative stress has emerged as playing a central role in metabolic syndrome and its component pathologies and may be a unifying factor in the progression of this disease.

In the present study, we evaluated in a hamster experimental model, the influence of irbesartan and melatonin, co-administered in a novel pharmaceutical multiparticulate formulation, on metabolic markers and oxidative profile. Our results depicted blood glucose, serum cholesterol and triglycerides lowering effects, being maximum for the new formulation irbesartan and melatonin, revealing a potentiating effect of the two drugs. On the oxidative status, the new formulation presented a tremendous decreasing effect, due to the simultaneous release in the bloodstream the two medicines, depicting a synergic unique effect, reasoning the use of the two molecules in a single pharmaceutical formulation.