13C3 caffeine

13C3 caffeine is a stable isotope-labeled form of caffeine (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) where three carbon atoms are replaced with the carbon-13 isotope. It is primarily utilized in clinical research as a metabolic probe or diagnostic marker to investigate physiological processes such as gastric emptying, intestinal absorption, and liver function. In the context of biopharmaceutical research at the Universität Greifswald, it is used as a reference marker to evaluate the performance of oral delivery systems, specifically to track the disintegration and absorption kinetics of enteric-coated and permeation-enhancing formulations for vitamins like cyanocobalamin (B12) and thiamine (B1). As a chemical entity, caffeine acts as a non-selective adenosine receptor antagonist and a competitive phosphodiesterase inhibitor, though its application in this specific trial context is for its pharmacokinetic properties as a tracer rather than for therapeutic effect.

Other names

1,3,7-trimethylxanthine-13C3[13C3]-caffeine