Lisdexamfetamine & Incubated red blood cells

[Elleazar]

First and foremost sorry I'm new here and I didn't know where to put this. So (correct me if I'm wrong) a lisdexamfetamine is usually absorbed through your GI tract and broken down by your red blood cells due to their hydrolytic property. If hypothetically speaking you were able to create a controlled environment to keep red blood cells alive and functioning could you dissolve the lisdexamfetamine in the blood and separate the bi-product l-lysine from the dextroamphetamine? Or am I going about this wrong?

 

[Solipsis]

Yes..

Hi and welcome + this thread seems appropriate for this part of the forum.

Didn't know this about vyvanse before just now, but yes it appears so:

In the presence of rat and human whole blood, LDX was converted to amphetamine.

(...)

Studies of in vitro enzymatic conversion by human blood cell fractions demonstrated that LDX was converted into active d-amphetamine by red blood cells.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2873712/
Pennick M. Absorption of lisdexamfetamine dimesylate and hydrolysis to form the active moiety, d-amphetamine. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit; June 29–July 2, 2009; Hollywood, Fla. (in press).
Pennick M. Hydrolytic conversion of lisdexamfetamine dimesylate to the active moiety, d-amphetamine Poster presented at the Annual Scientific Convention and Meeting of the Society of Biological PsychiatryMay 14–16, 2009Vancouver; Absorption of the prodrug lisdexamfetamine dimesylate and its subsequent enzymatic conversion to the active moiety d-amphetamine. Neuropsychiatric Dis Treat (in press).

The 'in vitro' in the quote means that it was done experimentally outside of a living body. To keep blood alive is not so complex or Frankensteinian, I don't think.
Remove the platelets, via separation in a centrifuge, and I believe you would prevent coagulation... not sure how long red blood cells hold up isolated, but it's probably temperature dependent..
If you just prevent exposure of the blood to air you would also prevent coagulation - they do this all the time with blood samples in vacutainers vials.

So uhm...what are you planning? Don't tap arteries : P

 

[Elleazar]

Thanks for the response!
I was looking around for a different way to breakdown vyvanse and I couldn't find any reliable way to do so without using trypsin or some other odd enzyme. I was scanning the wiki article on lisdexamfetamine, came across the metabolism section, and wondered if anyone had ever tried my idea. So no, no pricked arteries for me :D

 

[SquidInSunglasses]

Is there any reason the amide can't be hydrolysed chemically in the standard manner? I don't see amp being very vulnerable to the conditions.

 

[InterestingFACT]

These threads come up far too often.


Is it possible to break down vyvanse? Yes, though with some difficulty. But there are a number of possibly viable techniques, including the one you just mentioend.

Is there a good reason to? No, not particularly.

You'll be quickly disappointed by your results. a 50mg pill of vyvanse -- lysdexamfetamine dimesylate -- contains just ~15mg of dextroamphetamine base by weight.=equivalent to ~20mg of dextroamphetamine sulfate.

The difference is in the way it's absorbed by the body. While other amphetamine preparations suffer from a typical oral bioavailable in the ~60% range, vyvanse achieves nearly 100% absorption--though granted, over a longer period of time.

The fact of the matter is that Vyvanse gives you more "bang for you buck" in terms taking a small amount of chemical a relatively long way. Converting it to another form will essentially be wasting a portion of your product, since all other forms will be less bioavailable--unless you intend to inject your cocktail.

---

If you want an IR med, ask your doctor for an IR med. Or sell your vyvanse and buy an IR med or some street speed--what you've got is worth a lot more than what you're trying to get.


edit: I don't mean to seem overly hostile to what is likely a primarily curiosity-motivated question. There's certainly nothing wrong with wondering--I've done similar wondering myself. I just think that--even if a method becomes readily available to you to perform a lossless conversion of product, you would be doing yourself a disservice by following through.

In fact, In perusing the Vyvanse patents.... I'm shocked I haven't seen more conversation extending the other way: that is, homebaking a lysine-bonded prodrug from easily available street sources of speed.

http://www.google.com/patents/US20120157706

The mechanics are so simple that it can't even be called a synthesis. You throw lysine and a protecting group in a pot and add a leaving group to get your intermediate lysine derivative. Add the appropropriate amount of dextroamphetamine base and you've got yourself some lisdexamfetamine to salt out as normal.

Meanwhile, people are trying to break down their (incredibly more expensive) Vyvanse prescriptions for a shot at getting a smaller portion of the material without the time release...

 

[Elleazar]

Thank you for your responses! This was mostly a curiosity based question, but I was hoping it could lead to something that would yield better results. I will continue messing around with it and see if I come up with anything.