Browsing by Subject "UDP-glucuronosyltransferase"
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(2014)Estrogens are female sex hormones that have genotoxic and proliferation-enhancing effects in cells. Life-time exposure to estrogens is linked to the risk of several cancers. Estrone is only a weak agonist of estrogen receptor but it serves as a precursor for biosynthesis of 17β-estradiol, 16α-hydroxyestrone and catechol estrogens. While 16α-hydroxyestrone has relatively weak affinity for estrogen receptor, it has prolonged effect due to covalent binding to the receptor. UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) are phase II metabolic enzymes that conjugate estrogens with glucuronic acid to render them more watersoluble. Polymorphisms in UGT genes have been linked to excretion of steroids and risk of some cancers. Generally, subfamily UGT1A enzymes conjugate the 3-hydroxyls of estrogens, while the activity of subfamily UGT2B is directed towards 16- and 17-hydroxyls. Previous results on estrone glucuronidation are incomplete and conflicting, while glucuronidation of 16α-hydroxyestrone has not been systematically studied. The aim of this study was to identify UGTs active in the glucuronidation of estrone and 16α-hydroxyestrone and to further examine the glucuronidation kinetics of the active UGTs. Also the effects of bovine serum albumin (BSA), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and mutations of UGT1A10F90 and UGT1A10F93 on glucuronidation activity were examined. Activity assays were conducted using recombinant enzymes as well as human liver and intestinal microsomes. Resulting glucuronides were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography and quantified based on their UV absorbance. UGT1A3, UGT1A10 and UGT2A1 showed the highest activity toward estrone glucuronidation, while UGT1A10, UGT2A1 and UGT2B7 were the most efficient UGTs conjugating 16α-hydroxyestrone. UGT1A10 had the highest Vmax in the glucuronidation of both substrates, although it conjugated estrone at a higher rate than 16α-hydroxyestrone. UGT1A10F93 was shown to have a role in the different glucuronidation activities of UGT1A10 toward estrone and 16α-hydroxyestrone. Affinity of 16α-hydroxyestrone was highest for UGT2B7, while UGT2B17 conjugated 16α-hydroxyestrone relatively slowly. The results confirm earlier observations of the preference of UGT2B7 for α-configured hydroxyls while UGT2B17 favors β-configuration. UGT2A1 showed no strict regioselectivity but had a relatively weak affinity for both substrates. DMSO was found to decrease UGT activity. However, its presence is necessary to solubilize lipophilic substrates. DMSO concentration has to be kept constant to produce comparable data for, for example, kinetic studies. BSA was found to alter especially the kinetics of UGT2A1. BSA also seemed to have solubility-enhancing effect.
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(2011)Drug-drug interactions occur when a drug or a drug metabolite modifies the activity of a drug metabolizing enzyme. As a result the concentration of active drug can be too low to be effective or too high and possibly toxic. This is an increasing problem in drug therapy where polypharmacy is rather common today. Therefore, in drug discovery and development significant efforts have been made in order to predict such interactions in advance and avoid them, or at least minimize them. This study is focused on medetomidine, a drug metabolized by UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGT). The aim of the study was to find inhibitors for medetomidine glucuronidation. Also the mechanism of possible inhibition was of interest. It is already common to test interactions of a given enzyme substrate with other enzymes of the same family either in phase I or phase II of drug metabolism in humans. It is less common, however, to examine such interactions between enzymes of two different families. In the present study it is tested if the compounds which are possible inhibitors of cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (CYP) also inhibit UGTs. Inhibition of glucuronidation was studied with HPLC method previously developed for medetomidine glucuronidation. First glucuronidation of medetomidine was studied without inhibitor compounds. After that the impact of three possible inhibitors on medetomidine glucuronidation was studied and results were compared with the initial results. Three compounds were found to inhibit glucuronidation of medetomidine. Also an interesting change in UGT's enzyme kinetics after the binding of inhibitor was discovered. It is interesting that same compounds could inhibit both CYPs and UGTs. The results revealed that if a CYP and a UGT could bind for the same compound, it is also likely that structural analogues of that compound will interact with both enzymes. In drug discovery and development it is important to take into account both CYP-enzymes and less studied UGTs, and their possible interactions.
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