Distinct relations among plasma concentrations required for different pharmacological effects in oxycodone, morphine, and fentanyl.

Several clinical reports showed that adverse effect profiles are not the same in morphine, oxycodone, and fentanyl. The authors investigated whether the relationship between plasma concentrations for antinociceptive effect and for various pharmacological effects differed among oxycodone, morphine, and fentanyl under controlled experimental setting using animal models. Oxycodone induced constipation and an antinociceptive effect in a similar concentration-dependent manner, whereas morphine required approximately 9-fold higher plasma concentration for antinociceptive effect compared with that for constipation when 50% effective plasma concentration (EC(50)) levels were compared. The EC(50) values for inhibition of behavioral activity were 2.1-, 2.7-, and 1.3-fold higher than those for antinociceptive effect in oxycodone, morphine, and fentanyl, respectively. Respiratory inhibition was observed even at higher plasma concentrations in all three opioids, and the differences in the EC(50) values compared with those for antinociceptive effects were 234.5-fold (oxycodone), 233.1-fold (morphine), or 104.2-fold (fentanyl). These results showed that oxycodone, morphine, and fentanyl exhibited unique patterns of plasma concentrations required for different pharmacological effects. The different adverse effect profiles observed in a clinical setting appear to be resulted from, at least in part, distinct intrinsic pharmacological profiles among these µ-opioid receptor agonists.

Assay for spermidine synthase activity by micellar electrokinetic chromatography with laser-induced fluorescence detection.

An assay for spermidine synthase (SPDS) activity in rat liver has been developed using micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection to enable the discovery of SPDS inhibitors. The assay was established by estimating the amount of spermidine (SPD) produced from the putrescine (PUT) present by SPDS. The SPD in an enzyme reaction mixture of homogenized rat liver could directly react with 7-fluoro-4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole (NBD-F) as a fluorescence derivatization reagent. The NBD derivatives of SPD and PUT could be separated and detected by MEKC-LIF detection within 15 min. The IC(50) value measured for SPDS inhibitor, 4-methylcyclohexylamine, in rat liver by this assay was consistent with published data. Our SPDS assay using MEKC-LIF is simple and allows easy determination of SPDS activity in homogenized samples without troublesome procedures such as preparation of antibody or fluorescence-labeled substrate. The assay should be effective for discovering the SPDS inhibitors using biological samples.

Development of high-throughput spermidine synthase activity assay using homogeneous time-resolved fluorescence.

Spermidine synthase (SPDS) catalyzes transfer of the propylamine group from decarboxylated S-adenosylmethionine (dcSAM) to putrescine to yield methylthioadenosine (MTA) and spermidine. SPDS plays a regulatory role in cell proliferation and differentiation. This article describes the development of a high-throughput SPDS activity assay using homogeneous time-resolved fluorescence (HTRF) based on energy transfer from europium cryptate as a donor to crosslinked allophycocyanin (XL665) as an acceptor. First a highly specific anti-MTA monoclonal antibody, MTA-7H8, was generated, and then a competitive immunoassay for MTA determination was developed using europium cryptate-labeled MTA-7H8 and XL665-labeled MTA. In our homogeneous immunoassay, the percentage molar cross-reactivity of dcSAM with MTA-7H8 was 0.01% and the detection limit of MTA was 2.6 pmol/well. Our HTRF assay uses only one assay plate in which both enzyme reaction and MTA determination can be done successively. Therefore, our method can enable automatic screening of SPDS inhibitors from large numbers of samples.

Assay of collagenase activity for native triple-helical collagen using capillary gel electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection.

Three collagenase assays for two native triple-helical collagens have been developed using capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE) with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection in order to discover the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) inhibitors. These collagenase assays include measurement of the activities of interstitial collagenase (MMP-1) and neutrophil collagenase (MMP-8) against type I collagen, and collagenase-3 (MMP-13) against type II collagen, and the enzyme activities could be readily measured by determining the 3/4 fragments produced from the cleavage of the native collagens. The highly desired sensitivity of the assays could be achieved, employing a dynamic fluorescence labeling technique with the running buffer containing 0.05% sodium dodecylsulfate and non-covalent fluorescent dye for protein, NanoOrange. The collagen, its 1/4 and 3/4 fragments of type I or II collagen could be separated and detected within the run time of 20 min by CGE mode using the gel buffer (pH 8.8) containing 4% polyacrylamide. Good linearity of the peak area of the 3/4 fragment was obtained over each assay range of collagenase (15-150 ng/tube for MMP-1, 3-30 ng/tube for MMP-8, and 1.5-30 ng/tube for MMP-13, respectively). The relative standard deviation of the peak areas of the 3/4 fragment produced from type II collagen by MMP-13 cleavage was calculated to be less than 13.4%, indicating that the assay was reproducible. Also, IC50 values of three MMPs inhibitors, which were calculated for estimation by the variation of the peak areas of the 3/4 fragments using 90 ng/tube for MMP-1, 30 ng/tube for MMP-8 or 15 ng/tube for MMP-13, were almost consistent with data from other assays. The CGE-LIF method is expected to be very useful for proteinase assay and its application to the estimation of inhibitors because this method enables an assay of collagenase activity using native substrate to be conducted without experimentally troublesome procedure such as preparation of antibody or fluorescence-labeled substrate.