Polar molecular surface as a dominating determinant for oral absorption and brain penetration of drugs.

PURPOSE: To study oral absorption and brain penetration as a function of polar molecular surface area. METHODS: Measured brain penetration data of 45 drug molecules were investigated. The dynamic polar surface areas were calculated and correlated with the brain penetration data. Also the static polar surface areas of 776 orally administered CNS drugs that have reached at least Phase II efficacy studies were calculated. The same was done for a series of 1590 orally administered non-CNS drugs that have reached at least Phase II efficacy studies. RESULTS: A linear relationship between brain penetration and dynamic polar surface area (A2) was found (n = 45, R = 0.917, F1,43 = 229). Brain penetration decreases with increasing polar surface area. A clear difference between the distribution of the polar surface area of the 776 CNS and 1590 non-CNS drugs was found. It was deduced that orally active drugs that are transported passively by the transcellular route should not exceed a polar surface area of about 120 A2. They can be tailored to brain penetration by decreasing the polar surface to <60-70 A2. This conclusion is supported by the inverse linear relationship between experimental brain penetration data and the dynamic polar surface area of 45 drug molecules. CONCLUSIONS: The polar molecular surface area is a dominating determinant for oral absorption and brain penetration of drugs that are transported by the transcellular route. This property should be considered in the early phase of drug screening.

The use of human in vitro metabolic parameters to explore the risk assessment of hazardous compounds: the case of ethylene dibromide.

Ethylene dibromide (1,2-dibromoethane, EDB) is metabolized by two routes: a conjugative route catalyzed by glutathione S-transferases (GST) and an oxidative route catalyzed by cytochrome P450 (P450). The GST route is associated with carcinogenicity. An approach is presented to use human purified GST and P450 enzymes to explore the importance of these metabolic pathways for man in vivo. This strategy basically consists of four steps: (i) identification of the most important isoenzymes in vitro, (ii) scaling to rate per milligram cytosolic and microsomal protein, (iii) scaling to rate per gram liver, and (iv) incorporation of data in a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model. In the first step, several GST isoenzymes were shown to be active toward EDB and displayed pseudo-first-order kinetics, while the EDB oxidation was catalyzed by CYP2E1, 2A6, and 2B6, which all displayed saturable kinetics. In the second step, the predictions were in agreement with the measured activity in a batch of 21 human liver samples. In the third step, rat liver P450 and GST metabolism of EDB was predicted to be in the same range as human metabolism (expressed per gram). Interindividual differences in GST activity were modeled to determine "extreme cases." For the most active person, an approximately 1.5-fold increase of the amount of conjugative metabolites was predicted. Lastly, it was shown that the GST route, even at low concentrations, will always contribute significantly to total metabolism. In the fourth step, a PBPK model describing liver metabolism after inhalatory exposure to EDB was used. The saturation of the P450 route was predicted to occur faster in the rat than in man. The rat was predicted to have a higher turnover of EDB from both routes. Nevertheless, when all data are combined, it is crucial to recognize that the GST remains significantly active even at low EDB concentrations. The limitations and advantages of the presented strategy are discussed.

Interactions of alpha, beta-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones with human glutathione S-transferase P1-1.

In the present study the irreversible inhibition of human glutathione S-transferase P1-1 (GSTP1-1) by alpha, beta-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones was studied. When GSTP1-1 was incubated with a 50-fold molar excess of the aldehydes acrolein (ACR) and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE) and the ketones curcumin (CUR) and ethacrynic acid (EA) at 22 degrees C, all of them inactivated GSTP1-1. The remaining activity after 4 h of incubation in all cases was lower than 10%. The aldehydes crotonaldehyde (CRA), cinnamaldehyde (CA) and trans-2-hexenal were found to inhibit GSTP1-1 only at a 5000-fold molar excess and even then, for example, for CA a higher remaining activity of 17% was observed. The same inhibition experiments were conducted with 3 mutants of GSTP1-1: the C47S and C101S mutants and the double mutant C47S/C101S. Remaining activity for C47S varied between +/- 40% for CRA, CA, CUR and HEX and +/- 80% for ACR, EA and HNE. For C101S it varied between 0 and 9% and for the double mutant C47S/C101S, activity after 4 h of incubation was variable. Again it varied between +/- 40% for CRA, CA, CUR and HEX and +/- 80% for ACR, EA and HNE. EA is known to react almost exclusively with cysteine 47. When [14C]EA was incubated with the GSTP1-1, modified by the alpha, beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, no [14C]EA was incorporated in the enzyme, indicating that in all cases this cysteine residue was one of the major targets. Since Michael addition with these reagents is known to be reversible, the results of incubation of the inactivated enzymes with an excess of glutathione (GSH) were determined. For all compounds, a restoration of the catalytic activity was observed. The results indicate that alpha, beta-unsaturated carbonyl derivatives inhibit GSTP1-1 irreversibly mainly by binding to cysteine residues of GSTP1-1, especially Cys-47, This means that some of these compounds (e.g. CUR) might modify GST activity in vivo when GSH concentrations are low by covalent binding to the enzyme.

Inhibition of glutathione S-transferase activity in human melanoma cells by alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl derivatives. Effects of acrolein, cinnamaldehyde, citral, crotonaldehyde, curcumin, ethacrynic acid, and trans-2-hexenal.

The glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity towards 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene in intact human IGR-39 melanoma cells was determined by the quantification by HPLC-analysis of the excreted glutathione (GSH) conjugate (S-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)glutathione; DNPSG). The major GST subunit expressed in these melanoma cells is the pi-class GST subunit P1. Using this system, the effect of exposure for 1 h to a series of alpha, beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds at non-toxic concentrations was studied. Curcumin was the most potent inhibitor (96% inhibition at 25 microM), while 67 and 61% inhibition at 25 microM was observed for ethacrynic acid and trans-2-hexenal, respectively. Moderate inhibition was observed for cinnamaldehyde and crotonaldehyde, while no inhibition was found for citral. The reactive acrolein did not inhibit the DNPSG-excretion at 2.5 microM, the highest non-toxic concentration. Up to about 50% GSH-depletion was found after treatment with crotonaldehyde, curcumin and ethacrynic acid, however the consequences for GST conjugation are presumably small. Reversible inhibition of GST was the major mechanism of inhibition of DNPSG-excretion in melanoma cells, except in the cases of curcumin and ethacrynic acid, which compounds also inactivated GSTP1-1 by covalent modification. This was clear from the fact that depending on the dose between 30 and 80% inhibition was still observed after lysis of the cells, under which conditions reversible inhibition was is absent. Intracellular levels of DNPSG remained relatively high in the case of ethacrynic acid. It is possible that ethacrynic acid also inhibits the transport of DNPSG by inhibition of the multidrug resistance-associated protein gene encoding glutathione conjugate export pump (MRP/GS-X pump) in some way.

In vitro inhibition of rat and human glutathione S-transferase isoenzymes by disulfiram and diethyldithiocarbamate.

The drug disulfiram (DSF, Antabuse) has been used in the therapy of alcohol abuse. It is a potent inhibitor of aldehyde dehydrogenase. Its reduced form, diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC), and further metabolites show similar activities. DSF and DDTC have also been widely used to inhibit mixed-function oxidases. In this study, the reversible inhibition and time-dependent inactivation of the major rat and human glutathione S-transferase (GST) isoenzymes by DSF and DDTC was investigated. Reversible inhibition, using 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene as substrate for the GST alpha-, mu-, and pi-class, expressed as I50 (in microM), ranged from 5-18 (human A1-1), 43-57 (rat 4-4) and 66-83 (rat 1-1), for both DSF and DDTC. The I50 for rat GST theta, using 1,2-epoxy-3-(p-nitrophenoxy)-propane as substrate, was 350 microM for DDTC. The other GSTs were significantly less sensitive to inhibition. The major part of reversible inhibition by DSF was shown to be due to DDTC, formed rapidly upon reduction of DSF by the glutathione (GSH) present in the assay to measure GST activity. The oxidized GSH formed upon reduction of DSF might also have made a minor contribution to reversible inhibition. The rat and human pi-class was, by far, the most sensitive class for time-dependent inactivation by DSF, but no such inactivation was observed for any of the GSTs by DDTC. Moderate susceptibility to inactivation by DSF of all the other GSTs was observed, except for human A2-2, which does not possess a cysteine residue. Consistent with the assumption that a thiol residue is involved in this inactivation, a significant part of the activity could be restored by treatment of the inactivated GST with GSH or dithiotreitol.

The effect of a natural high-fibre diet on faecal and biliary bile acids, faecal pH and whole-gut transit time in man. A controlled study.

Dietary fibre possibly protects against colonic cancer by effects on bile acid metabolism. We investigated the effect of a natural high-fibre diet on secondary bile acid formation. Twelve healthy subjects on an habitual low-fibre diet (for 4 weeks) consumed a high-fibre menu for 10 weeks (experimental group). A control group of 10 subjects consumed their regular high-fibre diet during this period. Faecal and biliary acid composition, faecal weight, faecal pH and gut transit time were studied before and after 6 and 10 weeks of fibre addition. Changes in the experimental group were compared to changes in the control group. The concentration, but not the excretion, of the secondary faecal bile acids was reduced in the experimental group. Faecal weight increased, faecal pH dropped and gut transit time was not altered. The biliary deoxycholic acid content decreased and the cholic acid content increased after 6 weeks, but returned to baseline values after 10 weeks of fibre addition. This study shows that a natural high-fibre diet lowers secondary faecal bile acid concentration through an increase in stool weight. The 7 alpha-dehydroxylation of primary bile acids is probably not or only transiently inhibited.