What Is Omeprazole? Everything You Need To Know
Omeprazole is a medicine that belongs to a group of medicines called proton pump inhibitors. These are used for stomach problems such as acid and gastritis.
Here are the different aspects of omeprazole that we will get into today:
- How it works
- Metabolism
- Side effects
- How it interacts with other medicines
- What it is used for
How it works
The stomach possesses an acidic pH value. This is due to the HCI produced by the parietal cells found in the gastric mucosa.
In fact, the acidic pH of your stomach is essential for the digestion of food in order to:
- Correctly break down proteins.
- Activate the pepsin to peptide so that it can produce proteolysis or breakdown of the peptide bonds of the proteins.
- Avoid bacterial infections as the bacteria usually do not survive the acidity.
In addition, excess secretion of stomach acid can cause damage to the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. This mainly produces stomach ulcers and duodenal ulcers.
Steps in acid secretion
The secretion of stomach acid takes place in different steps:
- Separation of the ions H + and Cl- separately in the parietal cells
- Their combination to form HCl in canaliculi
- Excretion of acid also from the canaliculus to the lining of the stomach
Proton pump inhibitors, such as omeprazole, act in the last step of acid production, which irreversibly fights ATPH + / K-, a pH-dependent binding with a maximum pH <6.
This inhibition occurs through the formation of the covalent bond SS between sulfamide and a cysteine residue available to the proton pumps. This is connected to the residue Cys-813 and Ces-892.
Omeprazole, similar to other proton pump inhibitors, is administered in its neutral form, which is inactive. Moreover, in its neutral form it is lipophilic . This means that it is insoluble in water and is able to easily cross the cellular membrane without any problems.
Since these cells have an acidic pH, they transform the omeprazole from its neutral form to its active protonated form. This makes it possible to terminate the mechanism of action and irreversibly bind it to the proton pump and block its action.
- It is labile in acid, so the oral preparations are provided with an enteric wrap
- The binding of the plasma proteins is increased. More than 95%, which increases its ability to interact with other drugs as it may experience a change in dosage
- In addition, it is usually completely absorbed by the small intestine after 3-6 hours
- The oral bioavailability is approx. 35% and can increase up to 60% with repeated use once a day
- Its volume of distribution is 0.3 l / kg
Metabolism
Our metabolism depends on the specific isoenzyme CYP2C19.
Furthermore, most doses administered orally excrete inactive metabolites through the urine and the remainder through feces mainly from biliary secretion.
Side effects
You should keep in mind that omeprazole may present a number of unwanted side effects, but not many due to the selectivity of its action, which must be taken into account when administering this drug. Among them are:
- Prolonged treatments can produce severe hypomagnesaemia
- Increases the risk of bone fractures
- Skin changes such as itching and rash
- Gastrointestinal changes such as diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, nausea or vomiting
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Hypersensitivity
- Haemolytic anemia
- Reduction in the absorption of vitamin B12 so that it may increase the risk of suffering from megaloblastic anemia
- Risk of subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus (lupus)
- Increasing the levels of chromogranin A, the protein that has been shown to be high in certain types of cancer
This is how it interacts with other medicines
Omeprazole interacts with other medicines which, when taken at the same time, reduce or increase its effect.
It may reduce the effect of:
- Clopidrogerel
- Antifungals
- Phenytoin
- Mycophenolate
- Others
It may increase the effect of:
- Methotrexate
- Amphetamine
- Benzodiazepines
- Carvedilol
- Citalopram
- Escitalopram
- Cyclosporin
- Warfarin
- Others
In the end, it can also interact with many substances. So if you are taking omeprazole with other medicines, contact your doctor to prevent complications.
Omeprazole is used for
Used to:
- Ulcer
- Duodenum ulcer
- Esophagitis caused by reflux
- Zollinger-Ellison syndrome
- Mavekatar
- Functional dyspepsia
