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The toxicokinetics of β-amanitin, a toxic bicyclic octapeptide present abundantly in Amanitaceae mushrooms, was evaluated in mice after intravenous (iv) and oral administration. The area under plasma concentration curves (AUC) following iv injection increased in proportion to doses of 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 mg/kg. β-amanitin disappeared rapidly from plasma with a half-life of 18.3–33.6 min, and 52.3% of the iv dose was recovered as a parent form. After oral administration, the AUC again increased in proportion with doses of 2, 5, and 10 mg/kg. Absolute bioavailability was 7.3–9.4%, which resulted in 72.4% of fecal recovery from orally administered β-amanitin. Tissue-to-plasma AUC ratios of orally administered β-amanitin were the highest in the intestine and stomach. It also readily distributed to kidney > spleen > lung > liver ≈ heart. Distribution to intestines, kidneys, and the liver is in agreement with previously reported target organs after acute amatoxin poisoning. In addition, β-amanitin weakly or negligibly inhibited major cytochrome P450 and 5′-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase activities in human liver microsomes and suppressed drug transport functions in mammalian cells that overexpress transporters, suggesting the remote drug interaction potentials caused by β-amanitin exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eudesmin, fargesin, epimagnolin A, magnolin, and yangambin are tetrahydrofurofuranoid lignans with various pharmacological activities found in Magnoliae Flos. The inhibition potencies of eudesmin, fargesin, epimagnolin A, magnolin, and yangambin on six major human uridine 5′-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) activities in human liver microsomes were evaluated using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and cocktail substrates. Eudesmin, fargesin, epimagnolin A, magnolin, and yangambin inhibited UGT1A1 and UGT1A3 activities, but showed negligible inhibition of UGT1A4, UGT16, UGT1A9, and UGT2B7 activities at 200 μM in pooled human liver microsomes. Moreover, eudesmin, fargesin, epimagnolin A, magnolin, and yangambin noncompetitively inhibited UGT1A1-catalyzed SN38 glucuronidation with Ki values of 25.7, 25.3, 3.6, 26.0, and 17.1 μM, respectively, based on kinetic analysis of UGT1A1 inhibition in pooled human liver microsomes. Conversely, the aforementioned tetrahydrofurofuranoid lignans competitively inhibited UGT1A3-catalyzed chenodeoxycholic acid 24-acyl-glucuronidation with 39.8, 24.3, 15.1, 37.6, and 66.8 μM, respectively in pooled human liver microsomes. These in vitro results suggest the necessity of evaluating whether the five tetrahydrofurofuranoid lignans can cause drug–drug interactions with UGT1A1 and UGT1A3 substrates in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indazole carboxamide synthetic cannabinoid, AB-PINACA, has been placed into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act by the US Drug Enforcement Administration since 2015. Despite the possibility of AB-PINACA exposure in drug abusers, the interactions between AB-PINACA and drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters that play crucial roles in the pharmacokinetics and efficacy of various substrate drugs have not been investigated. This study was performed to investigate the inhibitory effects of AB-PINACA on eight clinically important human major cytochrome P450s (CYPs) and six uridine 5′-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferases (UGT) in human liver microsomes and the activities of six solute carrier transporters and two efflux transporters in transporter-overexpressing cells. AB-PINACA reversibly inhibited the metabolic activities of CYP2C8 (Ki, 16.9 µM), CYP2C9 (Ki, 6.7 µM), and CYP2C19 (Ki, 16.1 µM) and the transport activity of OAT3 (Ki, 8.3 µM). It exhibited time-dependent inhibition on CYP3A4 (Ki, 17.6 µM; kinact, 0.04047 min−1). Other metabolizing enzymes and transporters such as CYP1A2, CYP2A6, CYP2B6, CYP2D6, UGT1A1, UGT1A3, UGT1A4, UGT1A6, UGT1A9, UGT2B7, OAT1, OATP1B1, OATP1B3, OCT1, OCT2, P-glycoprotein, and BCRP, exhibited only weak interactions with AB-PINACA. These data suggest that AB-PINACA can cause drug-drug interactions with CYP3A4 substrates but that the significance of drug interactions between AB-PINACA and CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, or OAT3 substrates should be interpreted carefully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tight binding of pDNA with a cationic polymer is the crucial requirement that prevents DNA degradation from undesired DNase attack to safely deliver the pDNA to its target site. However, cationic polymer-mediated strong gene holding limits pDNA dissociation from the gene complex, resulting in a reduction in transfection efficiency. In this study, to control the decomplexation rate of pDNA from the gene complex in a hard-to-transfect cell or an easy-to-transfect cell, either α-poly(l-lysine) (APL) or ε-poly(l-lysine) (EPL) was incorporated into branched polyethylenimine (bPEI)-based nanocomplexes (NCs). Compared to bPEI/pDNA NCs, the addition of APL or EPL formed smaller bPEI-APL/pDNA NCs with similar zeta potentials or larger bPEI-EPL/pDNA NCs with reduced zeta potentials, respectively, due to the different characteristics of the primary amines in the two poly(l-lysine)s (PLs). Interestingly, although both bPEI-APL/pDNA NCs and bPEI-EPL/pDNA NCs showed similar pDNA compactness to bPEI/pDNA NCs, the addition of APL or EPL resulted in slower or faster pDNA release, respectively, from the bPEI-PL/pDNA NCs than from the bPEI/pDNA NCs. bPEI-EPL/pDNA NCs with a decomplexation enhancer (i.e., EPL) improved the transfection efficiency (TE) in both a hard-to-transfect HepG2 cell and an easy-to-transfect HEK293 cell. However, although a decomplexation inhibitor (i.e., APL) reduced the TE of bPEI-APL/pDNA NCs in both cells, the degree of reduction in the TE could be compensated by PL-mediated enhanced nuclear delivery, particularly in HepG2 cells but not HEK293 cells, because both PLs facilitate nuclear localization of the gene complex per its cellular uptake. In conclusion, a decomplexation rate controller could be a potential factor to establish a high TE and design clinically available gene complex systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catalposide, an active component of Veronica species such as Catalpa ovata and Pseudolysimachion lingifolium, exhibits anti-inflammatory, antinociceptic, anti-oxidant, hepatoprotective, and cytostatic activities. We characterized the in vitro metabolic pathways of catalposide to predict its pharmacokinetics. Catalposide was metabolized to catalposide sulfate (M1), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (M2), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid glucuronide (M3), and catalposide glucuronide (M4) by human hepatocytes, liver S9 fractions, and intestinal microsomes. M1 formation from catalposide was catalyzed by sulfotransferases (SULTs) 1C4, SULT1A1*1, SULT1A1*2, and SULT1E1. Catalposide glucuronidation to M4 was catalyzed by gastrointestine-specific UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) 1A8 and UGT1A10; M4 was not detected after incubation of catalposide with human liver preparations. Hydrolysis of catalposide to M2 was catalyzed by carboxylesterases (CESs) 1 and 2, and M2 was further metabolized to M3 by UGT1A6 and UGT1A9 enzymes. Catalposide was also metabolized in extrahepatic tissues; genetic polymorphisms of the carboxylesterase (CES), UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT), and sulfotransferase (SULT) enzymes responsible for catalposide metabolism may cause inter-individual variability in terms of catalposide pharmacokinetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]