Characterization of cardiovascular profile of anti-influenza drug peramivir: A reverse-translational study using the isoflurane-anesthetized dog

An injectable anti-influenza drug peramivir has been reported to induce QT-interval prolongation in some phase III studies, although its thorough QT/QTc study was negative. We investigated the discrepancy among those clinical studies using isoflurane-anesthetized beagle dogs (n = 4). Peramivir in doses of 1 mg/kg/10 min (sub-therapeutic dose) followed by 10 mg/kg/10 min (clinically-relevant dose) was intravenously administered. Peramivir prolonged QT interval/QTcV and T_peak-T_end, and tended to delay ventricular repolarization in a reverse-frequency dependent manner, indicating I_Kr inhibition in vivo. Meanwhile, peramivir did not alter P-wave duration, PR interval or QRS width, indicating a lack of impact on cardiac conduction via Na⁺ or Ca²⁺ channel inhibition in vivo. Peramivir prolonged T_peak-T_end and tended to prolong terminal repolarization period, which would develop substrates for initiating and maintaining spiral reentry, respectively. Meanwhile, peramivir did not prolong J-T_peakc, which could not induce early afterdepolarization, a trigger inducing torsade de pointes. Thus, our results support that clinical dose exposure of peramivir can delay the ventricular repolarization in influenza patients. Peramivir has only a small potential to induce torsade de pointes in patients with the intact hearts, but caution should be paid on its use for patients formerly having the trigger for torsade de pointes.