Research progress of hydrolases catalyzing amide drugs

Amide bond is formed by dehydration and condensation of amino and carboxyl groups in a molecule, which is used in structural design of drugs. The stability of the amide bond is affected by many factors, which make the pharmacokinetic behaviors of amide drugs complicated by metabolic heterogeneity. This review proposes that the expression and activity of hydrolase may be one of the important reasons for the obvious differences in the pharmacokinetics of amides among species, summarizes the common metabolic enzymes or proteins responsible for hydrolyzing amides so as to provide some reference for the structural design and further clinical study of amide drugs, and suggests that improper selection of in vitro evaluation systems may be an important cause for the inconsistency between between in vitro and in vivo pharmacokinetic characteristics of drugs, with a summary of the currently used in vitro drug metabolism systems for drug evaluation, aiming to provide a basis for preclinical evaluation of drugs.