Microsomal reactions

Environmental agents that influence microsomal reactions will influence hexachloroethane toxicity. The production of tetrachloroethene as a metabolite is increased by agents like phenobarbital that induce certain cytochrome P-450 isozymes (Nastainczyk et al. 1982a Thompson et al. 1984). Exposure to food material or other xenobiotics that influence the availability of mixed function oxidase enzymes and/or cofactors will change the reaction rate and end products of hexachloroethane metabolism and thus influence its toxicity. 

The above sequence mimics the proposed biosynthesis of Ervatamia alkaloids and in this context Thai and Mansuy (190) set out to determine whether an enzyme preparation would be able to promote the same transformation. By incubation of dregamine hydrochloride with a suspension of liver microsomes from a rat pretreated with phenobarbital (as a good inducer of P-450 cytochromes) in the presence of NADPH and 02, 20-epiervatamine (45) was formed together with the major metabolite Nl -demethyldregamine. It is well known that microsomal reaction on tertiary amines results in Af-oxide formation or N-deal-kylation. Thus it is likely that 45 was derived either from a rearrangement of dregamine JV4-oxide, catalyzed by the iron cytochrome P-450 or from one-electron oxidation of 30. 

Most cases of intoxication from industrial exposure have been mild, with rapid onset of eye irritation, headache, sneezing, and nausea weakness, light-headedness, and vomiting may also occur. Acute exposure to high concentrations may produce profound weakness, asphyxia, and death. Acrylonitrile is metabolized to cyanide by hepatic microsomal reactions. Deaths from acute poisoning result from inhibition of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase activity by metabolically liberated cyanide. Inhalation of more moderate concentrations for a longer period of time leads to damage to the liver tissues in addition to central nervous system (CNS) effects. ... 

Epoxidation and Aromatic Hydroxylation. Epoxidation is an extremely important microsomal reaction because not only can stable and environmentally persistent epoxides be formed (see aliphatic epoxidations, below), but highly reactive intermediates of aromatic hydroxylations, such as arene oxides, can also be produced. These highly reactive intermediates are known to be involved in chemical carcinogenesis as well as chemically induced cellular and tissue necrosis. 

Epoxidation Epoxidation is an important microsomal reaction. For example, the cyclodiene insecticide aldrin can be oxidized to its epoxide dieldrin (as shown in Chapter 4, Figure 4.4), and heptachlor is oxidized to heptachlor epoxide. There is no great increase in toxicity in this case, but the epoxides are more environmentally persistent than their precursors. Moreover, some of the epoxides produced in the microsomal oxidation are highly reactive and can form adducts with cellular macromolecules such as proteins, RNA, and DNA, often resulting in chemical carcinogenesis. 

Analysis of In Vitro Metabolism Reactions by LC/MS. An increasingly useful approach in metabolism studies involves a preliminary in vitro metabolism study using liver or kidney microsomal preparations (9,10). When combined with LC/MS, such a preliminary study can rapidly provide information about potential metabolites expected from subsequent in vivo studies. A flow chart of a typical experimental procedure for the microsomal reaction with mass spectral identification is shown in Figure 4. The herbicide substrates are generally labeled with both 13C and 14C, which allows monitoring of the reaction by radioactivity detection, and facilitates metabolite identification based on characteristic doublet ions in the mass spectra. The entire procedure can be completed in several hours on a microgram scale, generating a survey of potential metabolites. 

Ketamine, a dissociative anaesthetic, is administered as a racemic mixture (present in the parenteral preparation) and is initially metabolized by the liver to AT-desmethylketamine (metabolite I), which in part is converted by oxidation to the cyclohexene (metabolite II) (Fig. 1.5). The major metabolites found in urine are glucuronide conjugates that are formed subsequent to hydroxylation of the cyclohexanone ring. As the enantiomers differ in anaesthetic potency and the enantioselectively formed (metabolite I has approximately 10% activity of the parent drug) interpretation of the relationship between the anaesthetic effect and disposition of ketamine is complicated. On a pharmacodynamic basis, the S(+) enantiomer is three times as potent as the R(-) enantiomer (Marietta et al., 1977 Deleforge et al., 1991), while the enantiomer that undergoes N-demethylation (hepatic microsomal reaction) differs between species (Delatour et al, 1991). Based on the observed minimum anaesthetic... 

Most of the microsomal reactions can be classified as oxidations by what are referred to as mixed-function oxidases utilizing molecular oxygen and cofactors. The key enzyme is an iron-hemecytochrome P-450, a flavoprotein dependent in its reduction and reoxidation on the NADPH to NADP reaction. The 450 notation is based on the 450 nm absorption peak the enzyme exhibits on reaction with carbon monoxide. Thus, drug interactions with this enzyme system can be evaluated by measuring absorption spectra changes. 

Following the identification of metabolic pathways using human liver microsomes, reaction phenotyping studies may be conducted to determine which CYP isoforms are responsible for the metabolism. The active CYP isoforms can he identified using any of the following assay system.s, either alone or in combination ... 

DMNA can be degraded chemical or microbial processes or microsomal P-450 in liver microsomes. In all cases, the decomposition is either by denitrosation or demethylation (Figure 2). Denitrosation, whidi produces nitrite, can occur by both chemical and microbial reactions, while demethylation occurs by microbial and microsomal reactions. 

The reactivity of the individual O—P insecticides is determined by the magnitude of the electrophilic character of the phosphoms atom, the strength of the bond P—X, and the steric effects of the substituents. The electrophilic nature of the central P atom is determined by the relative positions of the shared electron pairs, between atoms bonded to phosphoms, and is a function of the relative electronegativities of the two atoms in each bond (P, 2.1 O, 3.5 S, 2.5 N, 3.0 and C, 2.5). Therefore, it is clear that in phosphate esters (P=0) the phosphoms is much more electrophilic and these are more reactive than phosphorothioate esters (P=S). The latter generally are so stable as to be relatively unreactive with AChE. They owe their biological activity to m vivo oxidation by a microsomal oxidase, a reaction that takes place in insect gut and fat body tissues and in the mammalian Hver. A typical example is the oxidation of parathion (61) to paraoxon [311-45-5] (110). 

Two important examples of reductive metabolism of xenobiotics are the reductive dehalogenation of organohalogen compounds, and the reduction of nitroaromatic compounds. Examples of each are shown in Figure 2.13. Both types of reaction can take place in hepatic microsomal preparations at low oxygen tensions. Cytochrome P450 can catalyze both types of reduction. If a substrate is bound to P450 in the... 

The five enzyme activities are localized in the microsomal fraction in rat testes, and there is a close functional association between the activities of 3P-OHSD and A -isomerase and between those of a 17oc-hydroxylase and 17,20-lyase. These enzyme pairs, both contained in a single protein, are shown in the general reaction sequence in Figure 42-5. 

Figure 1. Reaction scheme for production of alkylating agent following microsomal metabolism of S-nitrosodialkylamine (3),...

Analysis of reaction mixtures for 1-propanol and 2-propanol following incubation of NDPA with various rat liver fractions in the presence of an NADPH-generating system is shown in Table I ( ). Presence of microsomes leads to production of both alcohols, but there was no propanol formed with either the soluble enzyme fraction or with microsomes incubated with SKF-525A (an inhibitor of cytochrome P450-dependent oxidations). The combined yield of propanols from 280 ymoles of NDPA was 6.1 ymoles and 28.5 ymoles for the microsomal pellet and the 9000 g supernatant respectively. The difference in the ratio of 1- to 2-propanol in the two rat liver fractions may be due to differences in the chemical composition of the reaction mixtures (2) Subsequent experiments have shown that these ratios are quite reproducible. For comparison, Table I also shows formation of propanols following base catalyzed decomposition of N-propyl-N-nitrosourea. As expected (10,11), both propanol isomers were formed, the total yield in this case being almost quantitative. 

Since the results of our experiments with isolated rat liver fractions supported a reaction sequence Initiated by microsomal oxidation of the nitrosamine leading to formation of a carbonium ion, the results of the animal experiment suggested that in the intact hepatocyte, one of the earlier electrophilic intermediates (II, III or V, Figure 1) is intercepted by nucleophilic sites in DNA (exemplified here by the N7 position of guanine) before a carbocation is formed. 

The experiments with deuterium-labeled nitrosamines illustrate two important points. One is that oxidation of nitrosamines takes place at more than one position in the molecule, and the outcome of the balance of such competing reactions probably is the determinant of carcinogenic potency. The second is that the reason for the failure of carcinogenesis to be mirrored in many cases by the microsomally activated bacterial mutagenicity is that there can be several metabolic steps leading to formation of the proximate carcinogenic agent and not all of these need necessarily involve microsomal enzymes. ... 

Stndies of the antoxidation of carotenoids in liposomal suspensions have also been performed since liposomes can mimic the environment of carotenoids in vivo. Kim et al. stndied the antoxidation of lycopene," P-carotene," and phytofluene" " in liposomal snspensions and identified oxidative cleavage compounds. Stabilities to oxidation at room temperature of various carotenoids incorporated in pig liver microsomes have also been studied." The model took into account membrane dynamics. After 3 hr of reactions, P-carotene and lycopene had completely degraded, whereas xanthophylls tested were shown to be more stable. 

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