The hepatocarcinogen methapyrilene but not the analog pyrilamine induces sustained hepatocellular replication and protein alterations in F344 rats in a 13-week feed study.

Methapyrilene (MPH) was a widely used antihistamine until it was found to produce hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma in Fischer 344 rats. The structurally similar antihistamine pyrilamine (PYR) was marginally or noncarcinogenic in a similar study. The peroxisome proliferator Wy-14,643 was included in this study as a positive control. As part of a program to investigate the mechanisms whereby structurally similar chemicals produce different toxicities, we studied these three chemicals for the induction of cell proliferation in the liver of F344 rats. Male rats were treated for up to 13 weeks with feed dosed with MPH (HCl salt) at 0, 50, 100, 250, or 1000 ppm or PYR (maleate salt) at 1000 ppm to duplicate the route of administration and high-dose groups used in the carcinogenesis assay. In addition, the nongenotoxic hepatocarcinogen peroxisome proliferator Wy-14,643 was included as a positive cell-proliferating chemical. Cell proliferation was quantitated by measuring the incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine (BrDU) administered by osmotic minipump for 7 days and the appearance of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) immunohistochemically. The BrDU-labeling index showed a large and sustained increase in rats treated with MPH at 250 and 1000 ppm, sustaining greater than 50% labeling in the higher dose group of 4-, 6-, and 13-week treatment groups. PYR at 1000 ppm demonstrated no significant increase in labeling above control levels at any time point. PCNA-labeling indexes showed similar but reduced increases for MPH and were comparable to control for the PYR dose groups. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was used for the detection of quantitative changes in gene expression and qualitative changes in the charges of specific mitochondrial and cytosolic proteins. Quantitative changes in 32 proteins induced by MPH and 39 changes induced by Wy-14,643 were detected throughout the 13-week study. Specific mitochondrial protein charge shifts were associated with high-dose MPH treatment that were not observed in animals treated with Wy-14,643. PYR induced no significant qualitative or quantitative protein alterations. Hepatocellular proliferation of the large magnitude observed following dietary administration of MPH, and not PYR may contribute to the mechanism of carcinogenesis of MPH.

Chronic feeding study of pyrilamine in Fischer 344 rats.

The antihistamine, pyrilamine maleate, was fed for up to 2 years to groups of 57 Fischer 344 (F344) rats of each sex at dietary levels of 0, 300, 1500, or 3000 ppm (free base). Eight or nine of these rats per sex and dose group were killed at 65 weeks to analyze hematology and clinical chemistry in all groups and histopathology of control and high-dose animals. Histopathology also was performed on all dead or moribund rats and on all that survived for 2 years. Average daily exposures were 11 to 150 mg/kg pyrilamine compared to human dosages up to 3 mg/kg. Pyrilamine treatment did not reduce survival. Final body weights were reduced relative to controls (mid-dose males, 93%, females, 82%: high-dose males, 82%, females, 70%). The incidences of inflammation of the nasolacrimal duct (chronic in females; suppurative in males), liver cytoplasmic vacuolization (males), and the combination of animals with either liver basophilic or clear cell foci (males) tended to significantly increase with dose. Adrenal pheochromocytomas, mammary gland fibroadenomas, and neoplasms of the clitoral gland, thyroid c-cell, and pituitary gland all tended to decrease with increasing dose in females. In males only preputial gland neoplasms exhibited a similar negative trend. While two ovarian granulosatheca cell benign tumors occurred in high-dose females, these were thought to be a random occurrence. There was no evidence for the carcinogenicity of pyrilamine in F344 rats in the current study.

Aggravation of ischemic neuronal damage in the rat hippocampus by impairment of histaminergic neurotransmission.

Delayed damage to hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells was observed in rats subjected to cerebral ischemia caused by 10 min of 4-vessel occlusion. Animals pretreated with alpha-fluoromethylhistidine, a suicide inhibitor of histidine decarboxylase, showed significantly more necrotic cells than did control animals. Mepyramine (H1-antagonist) and (R) alpha-methylhistamine (H3-agonist), but not zolantidine (H2-antagonist), significantly aggravated the delayed neuronal death. These results suggest that histaminergic neurons have a protective role, probably via H1-receptors, in the development of delayed neuronal death caused by cerebral ischemia.

The intravenous self-administration of antihistamines by rhesus monkeys.

Rhesus monkeys were trained to lever press for infusions of cocaine during daily, 1-h experimental sessions. Following stabilization of the cocaine-maintained baselines, various antihistamines were substituted for cocaine to determine whether they would be self-administered. The results indicated that all monkeys tested self-administered tripelennamine and chlorpheniramine. One monkey out of the four self-administered pyrilamine, but only at a single (300 microgram/kg) high dose. Phenyltoloxamine, cimetidine and hydroxyzine were not self-administered. These results further illuminate differences amongst H1 antagonists in their potential for self-administration and, when examined in context with other reports, suggest that stimulant-like properties may help mediate their reinforcing effects when present.

Methapyrilene: DNA as a possible target.

The structural features contributing to the potential carcinogenicity, DNA-reactivity and genotoxicity of methapyrilene and its non-carcinogenic congener pyrilamine were examined. The analyses suggest that the former has the potential for DNA-reactivity, a property which is absent from the latter.

Microbial transformation of the antihistamine pyrilamine maleate. Formation of potential mammalian metabolites.

Fourteen fungi were found to metabolize pyrilamine (2-[(2-dimethylaminoethyl)(p-methoxybenzyl)amino]pyridine). Two Cunninghamella elegans strains transformed essentially all of the pyrilamine added after 144 hr. After 48 hr of incubation, C. elegans ATCC 9245 metabolized 76% of the antihistamine into methylene chloride-extractable pyrilamine metabolites. These organic-soluble metabolites were isolated by HPLC and the major metabolites were characterized by comparison of their chromatographic, mass, and 1H-NMR spectral properties with those of authentic compounds. The major metabolite was identified as 2-[(2-dimethyloxyaminoethyl)(p-methoxybenzyl)amino]pyridine (N-oxide derivative of pyrilamine). Other metabolites identified were 2-[(2-dimethylaminoethyl)(p-hydroxybenzyl)amino]pyridine, 2-[(2-methylaminoethyl)(p-methoxybenzyl)amino]pyridine, and 2-[(2-methylaminoethyl)(p-hydroxybenzyl)amino]pyridine. These metabolites represent O-demethylated, N-demethylated, and O- and N-demethylated derivatives of pyrilamine, respectively. The mutagenic activities of the N-oxide and the N- and O-dealkylated pyrilamine derivatives, and pyrilamine maleate were measured by reversion of Salmonella typhimurium strains TA97, TA98, TA100, and TA102. Pyrilamine maleate and the three microbial metabolites showed no appreciable mutagenic activity in any of the S. typhimurium tester strains. The metabolism of pyrilamine by 12 other filamentous fungi and yeast strains was much less when compared to C. elegans and ranged from 3.8% to 12.2%. The fungal metabolism of pyrilamine may be useful in predicting results of mammalian metabolism and in readily providing sufficient quantities of metabolites for further toxicological studies.

Studies with specific agonists and antagonists of the role of histamine H1- and H2-receptor activation in the pathogenesis of gastric lesions in rats.

Although the factors involved in the induction of gastric pathology have long been studied, the exact roles of the two histamine receptors in this process are still obscure. The aim of this study was to evaluate the consequences of the activation of histamine H1- and/or H2-receptors in the pathogenesis of gastric damage and antagonism of these pathological developments by specific antagonists. The following agents were used: histamine as H1- and H2H2-agonist; 2-pyridylethylamine (PEA) and mepyramine as H1-agonist and antagonist; dimaprit and ranitidine as H2-agonist and antagonist. Intravenous administration of the agonists caused definite gastric damage in rats. Both the antagonists inhibited histamine-induced gastric lesions, but the PEA and dimaprit-induced erosions could be prevented only by giving the specific H1- or H2-antagonist. In conclusion, activation of either H1- or H2-receptors can play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of histamine-induced gastric damage in rats.

Chronic toxicity tests of pyrilamine maleate and methapyrilene hydrochloride in F344 rats.

Methapyrilene hydrochloride was administered at levels of 125 or 250 ppm in the diet to groups of male and female F344 rats. The closely analogous antihistaminic drug pyrilamine, as the maleate, was given at 2000 ppm in the diet or at 2 g/litre drinking-water to groups of male and female F344 rats. Almost all of the rats given the higher dose of methapyrilene had either carcinomas or neoplastic nodules of the liver, whereas at 125 ppm 40% of the rats had neoplastic nodules in the liver. Among the 20 male and 20 female rats treated with pyrilamine maleate mixed into the diet, two males and two females had hepatocellular carcinomas and, in addition, five males and eight females had neoplastic nodules in the liver. The incidence of liver neoplasms in the rats given pyrilamine in the drinking-water did not differ from that in the untreated controls, of which five males and three females had neoplastic nodules in the liver.