Pharmacokinetics of oral tapentadol in cats

To evaluate pharmacokinetics of one dose of tapentadol hydrochloride orally administered to cats. Prospective experimental study. Five healthy adult mixed-breed cats. Each cat received 18.8 ± 1.0 mg/kg tapentadol orally. Venous blood samples were collected at time 0 (immediately prior to administration of tapentadol) 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 min, and 2, 4, 8, 12 to 24 h after drug administration. Plasma tapentadol concentrations and its metabolites were determined using ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Geometric mean T_max of tapentadol, desmethyltapentadol, tapentadol-O-glucuronide, and tapentadol-O-sulfate was 2.3, 7.0, 6.0, and 4.6 h, respectively. Mean C_max of tapentadol, desmethyltapentadol, tapentadol-O-glucuronide, and tapentadol-O-sulfate was 637, 66, 1134, and 15,757 ng/mL, respectively, after administration. Mean half-life of tapentadol, desmethyltapentadol, tapentadol-O-glucuronide, and tapentadol-O-sulfate was 2.4, 4.7, 2.9, and 10.8 h. The relative exposure of tapentadol and its metabolites were tapentadol 2.65%, desmethyltapentadol 0.54%, tapentadol-O-glucuronide 6.22%, and tapentadol-O-sulfate 90.6%. Tapentadol-O-sulfate was the predominant metabolite following the administration of oral tapentadol in cats. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the association of analgesia with plasma concentrations of tapentadol.