A preliminary study for the development of cleavable linkers using activatable fluorescent probes targeting leucine aminopeptidase.

Ligand-targeted drugs (LTDs) such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are currently attracting great attention as an alternative class of therapeutics to conventional chemotherapy for the clinical treatment of cancer. The linker is one of important factors determining the efficacy and toxicity of LTDs. The linker for LTDs should have enough stability during blood circulation, effectively release the payload, and leave no polar moieties in the released payload. However, the drug release activity and plasma stability of cleavable linkers are generally evaluated by complex and sophisticated in vivo techniques containing LC-MS, and the designing of new clinically applicable linkers remains a challenge. In this work, leucine aminopeptidase (LAP)-responsive fluorescent probes were designed as a simple preliminary model to verify whether a peptidase-responsive fluorescent probe can be used as a facile tool for the development of cleavable linkers although LAP is an exopeptidase and can't be a real target for cleavable linkers. LAP-responsive fluorescent probes were prepared by conjugation of a leucine to several xanthene fluorophores through a few linkages with a p-aminobenzyl spacer. The stability tests, kinetic study and live cell imaging of LAP-responsive activatable fluorescent probes demonstrated that the chemical stability and intrinsic activity of the linker for the release of drug can be easily evaluated by a fluorogenic assay. The ex vivo plasma stability test using mice suggested that an enzyme-responsive activatable fluorescent probe can be used as a feasible platform to evaluate the plasma stability of cleavable linkers during blood circulation.

Clinical and molecular characterization of Korean children with infantile and late-onset Pompe disease: 10 years of experience with enzyme replacement therapy at a single center.

PURPOSE: Pompe disease (PD) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by a deficiency of acid alphaglucosidase resulting from pathogenic GAA variants. This study describes the clinical features, genotypes, changes before and after enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), and long-term outcomes in patients with infantile-onset PD (IOPD) and late-onset PD (LOPD) at a tertiary medical center. METHODS: The medical records of 5 Korean patients (2 male, 3 female patients) diagnosed with PD between 2002 and 2013 at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, Republic of Korea were retrospectively reviewed for data, including clinical and genetic characteristics at diagnosis and clinical course after ERT. RESULTS: Common initial symptoms included hypotonia, cyanosis, and tachycardia in patients with IOPD and limb girdle weakness in patients with LOPD. Electrocardiography at diagnosis revealed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in all patients with IOPD who showed a stable disease course during a median follow-up period of 10 years. Patients with LOPD showed improved hepatomegaly and liver transaminase level after ERT. CONCLUSION: As ERT is effective for treatment of PD, early identification of this disease is very important. Thus, patients with IOPD should be considered candidates for clinical trials of new drugs in the future.

Evaluation of the in vitro/in vivo potential of five berries (bilberry, blueberry, cranberry, elderberry, and raspberry ketones) commonly used as herbal supplements to inhibit uridine diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase.

In this study, we evaluated inhibitory potentials of popularly-consumed berries (bilberry, blueberry, cranberry, elderberry, and raspberry ketones) as herbal supplements on UGT1A1, UGT1A4, UGT1A6, UGT1A9, and UGT2B7 in vitro. We also investigated the potential herb-drug interaction via UGT1A1 inhibition by blueberry in vivo. We demonstrated that these berries had only weak inhibitory effects on the five UGTs. Bilberry and elderberry had no apparent inhibitions. Blueberry weakly inhibited UGT1A1 with an IC50 value of 62.4±4.40 µg/mL and a Ki value of 53.1 µg/mL. Blueberry also weakly inhibited UGT2B7 with an IC50 value of 147±11.1 µg/mL. In addition, cranberry weakly inhibited UGT1A9 activity (IC50=458±49.7 µg/mL) and raspberry ketones weakly inhibited UGT2B7 activity (IC50=248±28.2 µg/mL). Among tested berries, blueberry showed the lowest IC50 value in the inhibition of UGT1A1 in vitro. However, the co-administration of blueberry had no effect on the pharmacokinetics of irinotecan and its active metabolite, SN-38, which was mainly eliminated via UGT1A1, in vivo. Our data suggests that these five berries are unlikely to cause clinically significant herb-drug interactions mediated via inhibition of UGT enzymes involved in drug metabolism. These findings should enable an understanding of herb-drug interactions for the safe use of popularly-consumed berries.

Evaluation of the in vitro/in vivo drug interaction potential of BST204, a purified dry extract of ginseng, and its four bioactive ginsenosides through cytochrome P450 inhibition/induction and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase inhibition.

We evaluated the potential of BST204, a purified dry extract of ginseng, to inhibit or induce human liver cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) and UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) in vitro to assess its safety. In vitro drug interactions of four bioactive ginsenosides of BST204, S-Rg3, R-Rg3, S-Rh2, and R-Rh2, were also evaluated. We demonstrated that BST204 slightly inhibited CYP2C8, CYP2D6, CYP2C9, and CYP2B6 activities with IC50 values of 17.4, 26.8, 31.5, and 49.7µg/mL, respectively. BST204 also weakly inhibited UGT1A1, UGT1A9, and UGT2B7 activities with IC50 values of 14.5, 26.6, and 31.5µg/mL, respectively. The potential inhibition by BST204 of the three UGT activities might be attributable to S-Rg3, at least in part, as its inhibitory pattern was similar to that of BST204. However, BST204 showed no time-dependent inactivation of the nine CYPs studied. In addition, BST204 did not induce CYP1A2, 2B6, or 3A4/5. On the basis of an in vivo interaction studies, our data strongly suggest that BST204 is unlikely to cause clinically significant drug-drug interactions mediated via inhibition or induction of most CYPs or UGTs involved in drug metabolism in vivo. Our findings offer a clearer understanding and possibility to predict drug-drug interactions for the safe use of BST204 in clinical practice.

Simultaneous quantification of caffeine and its three primary metabolites in rat plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

A rapid, sensitive, simple and accurate LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous quantitation of caffeine, and its three primary metabolites, theobromine, paraxanthine, and theophylline, in rat plasma was developed and validated. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent Poroshell 120 EC-C18 column using 1 µg/mL acetaminophen as an internal standard. Each sample was run at 0.5 mL/min for a total run time of 7 min/sample. Detection and quantification were performed using a mass spectrometer in selected reaction-monitoring mode with positive electrospray ionization. The lower limit of quantification was 5 ng/mL for all analytes with linear ranges up to 5000 ng/mL for caffeine and 1000 ng/mL for its metabolites. The coefficient of variation for assay precision was less than 12.6%, with an accuracy of 93.5-114%. The assay was successfully applied to determine plasma concentrations of caffeine, theobromine, paraxanthine, and theophylline in rat administered various energy drinks containing the same caffeine content. Various energy drinks exhibited considerable variability in the pharmacokinetic profiles of caffeine and its three primary metabolites, even containing the same caffeine. Different additives of energy drinks might contribute to these results.

Potent inhibition of cytochrome P450 2B6 by sibutramine in human liver microsomes.

The present study was performed to evaluate the potency and specificity of sibutramine as an inhibitor of the activities of nine human CYP isoforms in liver microsomes. Using a cocktail assay, the effects of sibutramine on specific marker reactions of the nine CYP isoforms were measured in human liver microsomes. Sibutramine showed potent inhibition of CYP2B6-mediated bupropion 6-hydroxylation with an IC50 value of 1.61µM and Ki value of 0.466µM in a competitive manner at microsomal protein concentrations of 0.25mg/ml; this was 3.49-fold more potent than the typical CYP2B6 inhibitor thio-TEPA (Ki=1.59µM). In addition, sibutramine slightly inhibited CYP2C19 activity (Ki=16.6µM, noncompetitive inhibition) and CYP2D6 activity (Ki=15.7µM, noncompetitive inhibition). These observations indicated 35.6- and 33.7-fold decreases in inhibition potency, respectively, compared with that of CYP2B6 by sibutramine. However, no inhibition of CYP1A2, CYP2A6, CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2D6, or CYP2E1 activities was observed. In addition, the CYP2B6 inhibitory potential of sibutramine was enhanced at a lower microsomal protein concentration of 0.05mg/ml. After 30min preincubation of human liver microsomes with sibutramine in the presence of NADPH, no shift in IC50 was observed in terms of inhibition of the activities of the nine CYPs, suggesting that sibutramine is not a time-dependent inactivator. These observations suggest that sibutramine is a selective and potent inhibitor of CYP2B6 in vitro, whereas inhibition of other CYPs is substantially lower. These in vitro data support the use of sibutramine as a well-known inhibitor of CYP2B6 for routine screening of P450 reversible inhibition when human liver microsomes are used as the enzyme source.