Human enzymes

TABLE 18.1 Human Enzymes Involved in Drug Metabolism That Have Been Computationally Modeled to Date... 

Phosphorylation by protein kinases of specific seryl, threonyl, or tyrosyl residues—and subsequent dephosphorylation by protein phosphatases—regulates the activity of many human enzymes. The protein kinases and phosphatases that participate in regulatory cascades which respond to hormonal or second messenger signals constimte a bio-organic computer that can process and integrate complex environmental information to produce an appropriate and comprehensive cellular response. 

Since no human enzyme catalyzes hydrolysis or phos-phorolysis of pseudouridine, this unusual nucleoside is excreted unchanged in the urine of normal subjects. 

The methylation of deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP) to thymidine monophosphate (TMP), catalyzed by thymidylate synthase, is essential for the synthesis of DNA. The one-carbon fragment of methy-lene-tetrahydrofolate is reduced to a methyl group with release of dihydrofolate, which is then reduced back to tetrahydrofolate by dihydrofolate reductase. Thymidylate synthase and dihydrofolate reductase are especially active in tissues with a high rate of cell division. Methotrexate, an analog of 10-methyl-tetrahydrofolate, inhibits dihydrofolate reductase and has been exploited as an anticancer drug. The dihydrofolate reductases of some bacteria and parasites differ from the human enzyme inhibitors of these enzymes can be used as antibacterial drugs, eg, trimethoprim, and anti-malarial drugs, eg, pyrimethamine. 

Alkaline phosphatase catalyzes the dephosphorylation of a mmber of artificial substrates ( ) including 3-glycerophosphate, phenylphosphate, p-nitrophenylphosphate, thymolphthalein phosphate, and phenolphthalein phosphate. In addition, as shown recently for bacterial and human enzymes, alkaline phosphatase simultaneously catalyzes the transphosphorylation of a suitable substance which accepts the phosphoryl radical, thereby preventing the accumulation of phosphate in the reaction mediim (25). 

By using in vitro preparations of human enzymes it is possible to predict those antibiotics that will adversely affect the metabolism of other drugs [110]. Such studies have shown that rifaximin, at concentrations ranging from 2 to 200 ng/ml, did not inhibit human hepatic cytochrome P450 isoenzymes 1A2, 2A6, 2B6, 2C9, 2C19, 2D6, 2E1 and 3A4 [34], In an in vitro hepatocyte induction model, rifaximin was shown to induce cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) [34], an isoenzyme which rifampicin is known to induce [109],... 

Aldurazyme (tradename, also known as laronidase) is a recombinant version of one polymorphic variant of the human enzyme a-L-iduronidase. It was approved for general medical use in the USA in 2003 and is indicated for the treatment of patients with certain forms of the rare inherited disease MPS I. MPS I is caused by a deficiency of a lysosomal a-L-iduronidase, which normally catalyses the hydrolysis of terminal a-L-iduronic acid residues from the glycosaminoglycans dermatan sulfate and heparin sulfate. The deficiency results in accumulation of the glycosaminoglycans throughout the body, causing widespread cell and tissue dysfunction. 

Tienilic acid- and dihydralazine-induced hepatitis are associated with antibodies against Cyp 2C9 [53] and Cyp 1A2 [54, 55], respectively. These are also the same cytochrome P450s that are responsible for the formation of reactive metabolites of these two drags. Anticonvulsant hepatotoxicity is associated with antibodies against rodent Cyp 3 A and related human enzymes such as thromboxane synthase [56, 57], It is interesting to note that cytochromes P450 are often the target of autoantibodies in idiopathic autoimmune hepatitis [58],... 

As human enzymes and cell surface receptors are chiral, the two enantiomers of a racemic drug may be absorbed, activated, or degraded in very different ways, both in vivo and in vitro. The two enantiomers may have unequal degrees... 

The standard model for the preclinical development of anti-osteoporosis therapies is the ovariectomized (OVX) rat. However, Cat K inhibitors developed specifically against the human enzyme are generally significantly less potent ( 2-orders of magnitude) against the rat and mouse enzymes than against human Cat K [9]. This loss of potency towards the rodent enzymes, which is consistent with their low sequence homology, therefore restricts the use of... 

J. M. T. Hamilton-Miller, /3-Lactamase-a Human Enzyme, Too , J. Antimicrob. Chem-other. 1982, 9, 87-90. 

The data in Table 10.1 suggest that the reactivity of epoxide hydrolase toward alkene oxides is highly variable and appears to depend, among other things, on the size of the substrate (compare epoxybutane to epoxyoctane), steric features (compare epoxyoctane to cycloalkene oxides), and electronic factors (see the chlorinated epoxides). In fact, comprehensive structure-metabolism relationships have not been reported for substrates of EH, in contrast to some narrow relationships that are valid for closely related series of substrates. A group of arene oxides, along with two alkene oxides to be discussed below (epoxyoctane and styrene oxide), are compared as substrates of human liver EH in Table 10.2 [119]. Clearly, the two alkene oxides are among the better substrates for the human enzyme, as they are for the rat enzyme (Table 10.1). 

Interestingly, there is a marked species difference in the in vitro hydrolysis of carbamazepine 10,11-epoxide, such that the reaction was observed only in liver microsomes from humans but not in liver microsomal or cytosolic preparations from dogs, rabbits, hamsters, rats, or mice [181][196], Thus, carbamazepine appears to be a very poor substrate for EH, in analogy with the simpler analogues 10.129 (X = RN, RCH, or RCH=C). The human enzyme is exceptional in this respect, but not, however, in the steric course of the reaction. The diol formed (10.131, X = H2NCON) is mostly the trans-(10.S, 11. S )-enaniiomer [196], In other words, the product enantioselectivity of the hydration of carbamazepine epoxide catalyzed by human EH is the same as that of di benzol a,oxide catalyzed by rabbit microsomal EH, discussed above. 

Perhaps it would be most informative to study the enzymes at their respective physiological conditions, at least for the purpose of predicting the effect of pressure on a living organism. Nevertheless, deliberate changes of conditions may be valuable when pressure is used to probe structure and mechanism. As we learn to understand the role of protein structure in the determination of pressure effects, we may be able to predict the effects on one enzyme from knowledge of the effect on another. Then, we may be able to gain information about pressure effects on human enzymes. 

Lewis et al. (entry 11 of Table 2) examined the temperature-dependence of isotope effects in the action of both the human enzyme and the soybean enzyme, by measuring the relative amounts of per-protio and per-deuterio-13-hydroperoxy-products by HLPC. The observed effects are, therefore, composed of primary, secondary, and perhaps remote isotope-effect contributions. Isotope effects on fecat/ M for both enzymes (determined by competition between labeled substrates) are increased by high total substrate concentration, an effect previously observed but stiU ill-understood. At 100 /rM substrate, the effects are roughly independent of temperature below about 15 °C, and are about 60 (H/D) for the human enzyme and 100 (H/D) for the soybean enzyme. Above 15 °C, the effects decline to about 50 for the human enzyme and about 60 for the soybean enzyme, perhaps because non-isotope-sensitive steps become more nearly rate-limiting (see Chart 4). 

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