Evaluation of the safety of daily administration of capromorelin in cats.
Capromorelin is a ghrelin receptor agonist that is FDA approved for appetite stimulation in dogs. The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety of daily oral administration of capromorelin to cats over a range of doses and for an extended period. Two randomized, controlled studies were conducted: in Study 1, cats (n = 6 per group) received placebo or capromorelin at a dose of 9, 15, 30 or 60 mg/kg once daily for 14 days; and in Study 2, cats received capromorelin at 6 mg/kg (n = 8) or placebo (n = 4) once daily for 91 days. Cats were evaluated using clinical observations and clinical pathology test results for both studies, with the addition of postmortem examination in Study 1 and measurements of growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor 1 in Study 2. Abnormal clinical observations were limited to emesis, hypersalivation, lethargy/depression, head shaking and lip smacking, which occurred more frequently in the capromorelin-treated groups than in the placebo group. There were no clinically relevant differences in clinical pathology test results between the capromorelin and placebo groups in either study.
['Wofford|J A|JA|http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6524-715X', 'Zollers|B|B|', 'Rhodes|L|L|http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5930-7961', 'Bell|M|M|', 'Heinen|E|E|']
D000284:Administration, Oral D000818:Animals D002371:Cat Diseases D002415:Cats D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug D004334:Drug Administration Schedule D005260:Female D013006:Growth Hormone D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I D053609:Lethargy D008297:Male D010880:Piperidines D011720:Pyrazoles D012798:Sialorrhea D014839:Vomiting
ghrelin ghrelin receptor agonist growth hormone insulin-like growth factor 1 growth hormone secretagogue