No pharmacokinetic interaction between ipragliflozin and sitagliptin, pioglitazone, or glimepiride in healthy subjects.

AIMS: To investigate the effect of ipragliflozin on the pharmacokinetics of sitagliptin, pioglitazone or glimepiride and vice versa in healthy subjects. METHODS: Three trials with an open-label, randomized, two-way crossover design were conducted in healthy subjects. Ipragliflozin 150 mg, sitagliptin 100 mg, pioglitazone 30 mg or glimepiride 1-2 mg were administered alone or in combination. Primary endpoints were the area under the curve from the time of dosing to infinity (AUC(inf)) and the maximum observed plasma concentration (C(max)) of each drug. RESULTS: Multiple doses of ipragliflozin did not change the AUC(inf) and C(max) of a single dose of sitagliptin, pioglitazone or glimepiride. All geometric mean ratios and 90% CIs for AUC(inf) and C(max) , with and without ipragliflozin, were within the predefined range of 80-125% (AUC(inf) : sitagliptin 100.1 [96.9-103.5], pioglitazone 101.7 [96.6-107.0], glimepiride 105.1 [101.3-109.0], and C(max) : sitagliptin 92.4 [82.8-103.1], pioglitazone 98.6 [87.7-110.8], glimepiride 110.0 [101.9-118.8]). Similarly, multiple doses of sitagliptin, pioglitazone or glimepiride did not change the pharmacokinetics of a single dose of ipragliflozin (AUC(inf) : 95.0 [93.4-103.1], 100.0 [98.1-102.0], 99.1 [96.6-101.6]; and C(max) : 96.5 [90.4-103.1], 93.5 [86.3-101.2], 97.3 [89.2-106.2]). Ipragliflozin either alone or in combination with any of the three glucose-lowering drugs was well tolerated in healthy subjects. CONCLUSION: Ipragliflozin did not affect the pharmacokinetics of sitagliptin, pioglitazone or glimepiride and vice versa, suggesting that no dose-adjustments are likely to be required when ipragliflozin is given in combination with other glucose-lowering drugs in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Divergence of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase isozymes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae complex.

Although sake yeasts are placed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we have been interested in their difference from the other subgroups of the species, and examined their proteins. When SDS-PAGE patterns of their soluble proteins were compared, specific differences between subgroups were found in their 36,000 Da regions. Proteins isolated therefrom were found to be subunits of three isomers of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) from their N-terminal amino acid sequences and identified with anti-GAPDH serum. Therefore, comparison of zymogram was carried out by a modified method: denatured monomers were observed and the enzyme activity of their oligomers was not considered. SDS-PAGE patterns of all the sake yeasts differed from those of the other strains of S. cerevisiae. Strains of Saccharomyces bayanus showed uniform patterns which are different from the above two groups. Saccharomyces pastorianus strains resembled S. bayanus and were partly similar to S. cerevisiae in their patterns, in agreement with the hypothesis that S. pastorianus is a hybrid between these two species. Patterns of S. paradoxus appeared to be rather similar to those of sake yeasts. Results on the other species of the genus and on the preliminary experiments on PAGE of native isozymes are also described.

1,5-Anhydroglucitol promotes glycogenolysis in Escherichia coli.

Glycogen is a storage compound that provides both carbon and energy, but the mechanism for the regulation of its metabolism has not been fully clarified. Recently, we found a new glycogenolytic pathway in rat liver in which glycogen is first metabolized to 1, 5-anhydrofructose (AnFru) and then to 1,5-anhydroglucitol (AnGlc-ol). Because the amounts of glycogen and AnFru are closely related in various rat organs and the second reaction, AnFru to AnGlc-ol, is strongly inhibited in the presence of glucose, we expected that this pathway might play a regulatory role in glycogen metabolism. Here we evaluate the expected involvement of AnGlc-ol and AnFru in the regulatory mechanism in Escherichia coli C600. Having established the presence of this new glycogenolytic pathway in E. coli C600, we further show that the conversion of AnFru to AnGlc-ol is activated only after the exhaustion of glucose in the medium, and that as little as 5 microM AnGlc-ol in the medium acutely accelerates the degradation of glycogen by 40%. We consider the role of AnGlc-ol in the mechanism that controls glycogen metabolism in E. coli to be as follows. When glucose is abundant, E. coli accumulate glycogen, a fraction of which is steadily degraded so that the amount of AnFru is about 1/1,000 of glycogen on a weight basis. When glucose is depleted and the demand for glycogen utilization is elevated, AnFru, which has accumulated mostly in the medium, is promptly taken up and converted to AnGlc-ol, which accelerates glycogen degradation. We also suggest the possibility that AnGlc-ol is one of the extracellular signaling molecules for bacteria.

Comparison of the structural characteristics of chromosome VI in Saccharomyces sensu stricto: the divergence, species-dependent features and uniqueness of saké yeasts.

Previous studies have revealed that chromosome VI of saké yeasts is much larger than that of the other strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Southern analysis using segments of chromosome VI of a laboratory strain as probes suggested that the nucleotide sequence of a major portion of this chromosome is conserved, but considerable diversity was found in the distal parts in the other strains. Physical maps also indicated that differences in length of chromosome VI were mainly due to differences in its ends. NotI was found to generate 9 kb and/or 16 kb fragments from the left telomere of chromosome VI in most saké yeasts, but no fragment in the case of AB972. SfiI produced one or two 30-50 kb fragments from the right end of this chromosome in all saké yeasts tested, but produced a 20 kb fragment in the case of AB972. All S. cerevisiae strains not employed in saké brewing were the same as AB972 in these respects. S. paradoxus had one NotI site in chromosome VI, while S. bayanus had two, one of which is possibly common to both species. The SfiI site mentioned above was present in chromosome VI of all species, while that of S. bayanus and S. paradoxus each had a second site distinct from the other. Chromosome VI of S. pastorianus was not distinguishable from that of S. bayanus.