Characterization of Glutathione Conjugates of Duloxetine by Mass

Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2010, 23, 1393–1404

1393

Characterization of Glutathione Conjugates of Duloxetine by Mass Spectrometry and Evaluation of in Silico Approaches to Rationalize the Site of Conjugation for Thiophene Containing Drugs Guosheng Wu,† Sarvesh C. Vashishtha,‡ and John C. L. Erve*,‡ Vitae Pharmaceuticals, 502 West Office Center DriVe, Fort Washington, PennsylVania 19034, and Pharmacokinetics Dynamics and Metabolism, Pfizer, 500 Arcola Road, CollegeVille, PennsylVania 19426 ReceiVed April 15, 2010

The in Vitro bioactivation of the selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor duloxetine was investigated using liver microsomes and cytosol, expressed glutathione transferase, and recombinant P450 2D6 and 1A2. In the presence of glutathione, several conjugates were identified and characterized using a combination of direct infusion nanoelectrospray mass spectrometry on an LTQ/Orbitrap and liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry on a triple quadrupole. Structural characterization of these conjugates revealed that glutathione conjugation occurred on naphthalene rather than on thiophene and likely proceeded via a reactive epoxide intermediate. Experiments with recombinant P450s and the isoform specific inhibitors quinidine and furafylline suggested that both P450 2D6 and 1A2 were involved in the bioactivation of duloxetine. To explore the utility of in silico approaches to address bioactivation issues, MetaSite and two docking approaches (rigid and induced-fit docking) utilizing publicly available human P450 crystal structures or a homology model for P450 2C19 were used to predict the sites of bioactivation for duloxetine as well as the thiophene containing compounds tienilic acid, suprofen, ticlopidine, methapyrilene, and OSI-930 for which glutathione conjugates on the thiophene moiety have been reported. MetaSite and induced fit docking but not rigid docking correctly predicted that naphthalene rather than thiophene was the preferred site of bioactivation for duloxetine by P450 2D6. MetaSite predictions were also consistent with literature reports that thiophene was the site of glutathione conjugation for tienilic acid, suprofen, and OSI-930 but not for ticlopidine or methapyrilene. Of the two docking approaches investigated, induced fit docking results were consistent with thiophene as the site of bioactivation for all compounds to which it was applied. In conclusion, our investigation identified the likely bioactivation pathway for duloxetine and demonstrated the utility of in silico approaches MetaSite and induced fit docking to address potential bioactivation liabilities. Introduction Duloxetine [(S)-N-methyl-3-(1-naphthalenyloxy)-2-thiophenepropanamine; Cymbalta] is a potent serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (1). It was approved in August 2004 for the treatment of major depressive disorder, pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuronpathy, generalized anxiety disorder, and stress incontinence in women (2, 3). When initially marketed, reported side effects were minor as described in the product insert. The safety and tolerability associated with dose escalation from 60 mg/day to 120 mg/day revealed no undue concern (4). However, postmarketing surveillance has revealed episodes of cholestasis, and there is some concern with patients having preexisting liver conditions taking duloxetine (5). Adverse reactions are a serious problem for drugs associated with idiosyncratic toxicity because the low incidence of these adverse reactions can make them very difficult to detect in phase three clinical trials especially when the number of patients in those trials is small (6). Drugs causing idiosyncratic toxicity often target the liver, and this can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality in patients (7). Bioactivation of various functional groups, known as toxicophores, have been investi* Corresponding author. Phone: (610) 635-0417. E-mail: john_erve@ hotmail.com. † Vitae Pharmaceuticals. ‡ Pfizer.

gated extensively due to their association with various idiosyncratic toxicities observed in humans following the launch of a drug (8, 9). Because of concern for the bioactivation of new chemical entities, some firms have established criteria to address this issue when reactive metabolites are encountered during drug discovery (10). Although duloxetine contains an unsubstituted thiophene ring, a toxicophore that has been shown to undergo bioactivation (11), no evidence for metabolism of thiophene was reported in humans (12). In contrast, tienilic acid and suprofen caused idiosyncratic toxicity and were subsequently shown to be bioactivated on thiophene to reactive intermediates (13, 14). In an LC/MS/MS reactive metabolite screen using liver microsomes, duloxetine generated a glutathione (GSH1) conjugate, although possibly due to the low extent of conjugate formation, the exact site of bioactivation was not reported in that study (15). Various computational tools have been developed to predict how a molecule may be metabolized by the major drug metabolizing P450 enzymes (16). Rigid docking or induced-fit docking (IFD) (17), explores how a molecule fits within the 1 Abbreviations: ESI, electrospray ionization; GSH, glutathione; HPLC, high-performance liquid chromatography; IFD, induced-fit docking; LC/ MS, liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry; MS, mass spectrometry; MS/MS, tandem mass spectrometry; PDB, protein data bank; SA, spectral accuracy; SE, spectral error; SIM, selected ion monitoring; SRM, selected reaction monitoring.

10.1021/tx100141d  2010 American Chemical Society Published on Web 07/29/2010

1394

Chem. Res. Toxicol., Vol. 23, No. 8, 2010

enzyme active site relative to the heme group and the results depend on accurate crystal structures of the P450 enzymes. One study correctly predicted 80% of experimentally determined sites of metabolism for 65 substrates of P450 2D6 (18). Unlike knowledge-based systems such as Meteor which depend on metabolism data in the literature, the program MetaSite performs an enzyme-substrate similarity analysis that considers the substrate’s chemical reactivity to rank likely sites of metabolism (19) and has the advantage that it can be applied easily by synthetic chemists and drug metabolism scientists. The objectives of the current investigation were to characterize the nature of the GSH conjugate(s) formed following the bioactivation of duloxetine by liver microsomes/cytosol from rats and humans using mass spectrometry. We also investigated the P450(s) responsible for duloxetine bioactivation. In addition, we evaluated the utility of in silico approaches such as MetaSite and docking techniques with human P450 crystal structures to correctly predict the site of bioactivation in duloxetine and for five other thiophene containing drugs for which GSH conjugates have been characterized. To this end, we performed in Vitro experiments with duloxetine and used mass spectrometry to characterize the resulting GSH conjugates while in silico approaches were evaluated to determine the agreement between theoretical predictions (for duloxetine and other thiophene drugs) with the experimental findings in the literature.

Materials and Methods Duloxetine was obtained from Toronto Research Chemicals (Ontario, CA) with a purity of >95%. Quinidine, furafylline, β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP+), NADPH, glucose 6-phosphate, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, GSH, glutathione-S-transferase (GST), and magnesium chloride were all purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO). EDTA (0.5M, pH 8.0) was obtained from GibcoBRL (Grand Island, NY). HPLC grade acetonitrile and methanol were obtained from EMD Chemicals (Gibbstown, NJ). Formic acid was obtained from Fisher Scientific (Fair Lawn, NJ). Pooled liver microsomes from male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (361 animals) and mixed gender human liver microsomes (50 individuals), and pooled liver cytosols from male SD rats (200 animals) and male human liver cytosols (10 individuals) were purchased from XenoTech LLC (Lenexa, KS). The microsomes and cytosol were aliquoted, stored at -80 °C, and thawed on ice before use. Microsomal protein concentrations were provided by the manufacturer. The tetrapeptide Met-Arg-Phe-Ala was purchased from Research Plus, Inc. (Manasquan, NJ), and Ultramark 1621 was obtained from Alfa Aesar (Ward Hill, MA). All other reagents were of analytical grade. ZipTips packed with C18 reverse-phase resin were purchased from Millipore (Billerica, MA). Electrospray ionization (ESI)-chips (type A) and precleaned V-bottomed 96-well storage plates were purchased from Advion BioSciences, Inc. (Ithaca, NY). Incubations of Duloxetine in Rat and Human Liver Microsomes/Cytosol with GSH. Duloxetine (50 µM) was incubated in a 1.0 mL solution containing magnesium chloride (10 mM), EDTA (2 mM) in potassium phosphate buffer (0.1 M, pH 7.4), rat or human liver microsomes (1.0 mg/mL), and cytosol (1.0 mg/ mL), in the presence of an NADPH generating system (2.62 mM of NADP, 7.11 mM of glucose-6-phosphate, and 0.8 units/mL of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) and GSH (5 mM), at 37 °C for 1 h. All incubations were done in duplicate. Incubations of duloxetine in buffer and in microsomes without NADPH were run as controls. Duloxetine was dissolved in methanol so that the final concentration of solvent in the incubation mixture was rat; data not shown). Additional [M + H]+ s ions observed at m/z 284.1104 (human < rat), m/z 314.1211 (human ∼ rat), m/z 330.1159 (rat only), and m/z 332.1316 (human > rat) (data not shown) were consistent with the reported duloxetine metabolites desmethyl duloxetine (0.1 ppm), hydroxy-duloxetine (0.2 ppm), dihydroxy-duloxetine (-0.3 ppm), and duloxetine dihydrodiol (-0.6 ppm), respectively, which were characterized in humans by LC/MS/MS (12). In addition to these metabolites, [M + H]+ ions at m/z 621.2049 (human , rat) and m/z 637.1999 (rat only) were observed, 323 or 305 Da larger than duloxetine and duloxetine dihydrodiol, respectively, suggesting that they were GSH conjugates with elemental compositions C28H37N4O8S2 (-0.3 ppm) and C28H37N4O9S2 (-0.4 ppm), respectively. When the molecular ion at m/z 621 was monitored by SIM in the Orbitrap with a resolving power of 60 K, the SE% for the molecular ion was 3.02% when comparing the observed spectrum with the theoretical spectrum for C28H37N4O8S2 (Figure 1A). This elemental composition was ranked 4th of 21 formulas consistent with the search parameters employed (see Materials and Methods). The molecular ion at m/z 637 was also monitored by SIM at a resolving power of 60 K, and the SE% for the molecular ion was 3.76% when comparing the observed spectrum with the theoretical spectrum for C28H37N4O9S2 (Figure 1B). This elemental composition was ranked 6th of 27 formulas consistent with the search parameters employed. The putative GSH conjugates were characterized further using LC/MS/MS as described below. When chromatographed by LC/MS/MS with SRM detection, rat incubations revealed three metabolites with m/z 621 with retention times of approximately 22.8, 23.0, and 23.8 min, corresponding to G1, G2, and G3, respectively (Figure 2A). In human incubations, only evidence for G1 and G3 was obtained, and these amounts were significantly lower than those in rats (Figure 2B). LC/MS conducted with D2O produced [M + D]+ at m/z 630 for G1, G2, and G3 indicating eight exchangeable protons, seven more than duloxetine (data not shown), consistent

1396


Figure 1. Molecular ion (solid line) showing the isotope pattern obtained from rat incubations for G1/G2/G3 at m/z 621 (A) and G4/ G5 at m/z 637 (B) acquired in the Orbitrap by SIM at a resolution setting of 60 K. High resolution is necessary to resolve G4/G5 from interference (dotted line). The observed spectral error for the isotope profiles is consistent for the proposed elemental compositions for these conjugates.

with the addition of GSH and one hydroxyl group. SRM detection in rat incubations revealed two metabolites with m/z 637 with retention times of 25.0 and 25.3 min, corresponding to G4 and G5, respectively (Figure 2C). These conjugates were absent in human incubations (Figure 2D). LC/MS conducted with D2O produced an [M + D]+ at m/z 647 for G4 and G5, indicating nine exchangeable protons, eight more than duloxetine (data not shown), consistent with the addition of GSH and two hydroxyl groups. Tandem Mass Spectrometry on the LTQ/Orbitrap. To determine the site of GSH addition to duloxetine, the conjugates were subjected to collision induced dissociation in the LTQ. The proposed fragmentation scheme and product ions of m/z 621 for the duloxetine GSH conjugates (G1/G2/G3) in rats are shown in Figure 3A. Loss of water or pyroglutamic acid (129 Da) from [M + H]+ produced the product ions at m/z 603 and 492, respectively. Further loss of water from m/z 492 produced m/z 474. Loss of thiophene propylmethylamine generated the product ion at m/z 468, which sequentially lost water and glutamic acid to generate the product ions at m/z 450 and 321 or water and glycine to generate the product ion at m/z 375.

Wu et al.

Cleavage of the bond between sulfur and duloxetine with the loss of two hydrogen atoms generated the product ion at m/z 306 representing GSH, while the loss of thiophene propylmethylamine and 2-amino-5-oxopentanoic acid (derived from glutamic acid) generated the product ion at m/z 304. The fragmentation of G1/G3 in humans showed a fragmentation pattern similar to that observed in rats (data not shown). The proposed fragmentation scheme and product ions of m/z 637 for the duloxetine GSH conjugate G4/G5 in rats is shown in Figure 3B. The loss of water or pyroglutamic acid (129 Da) from [M + H]+ produced the product ions at m/z 619 and 508. Further loss of glycine from m/z 508 produced m/z 432. Loss of thiophene propylmethylamine generated the product ion at m/z 484, which sequentially lost water and glutamic acid to generate the product ions at m/z 466 and 337, respectively. Cleavage of the bond between sulfur and duloxetine generated the product ion at m/z 308 representing GSH. Duloxetine and GST. SRM analysis of extracts from incubation mixtures of duloxetine with rat or human liver microsomes, NADPH, and GST revealed the presence of the three GSH conjugates on the basis of observed retention times for G1, G2, and G3 (data not shown). No GSH conjugate was detected in incubation mixtures without GST or NADPH. GSH Adduct Formation in the Presence of P450 2D6 and P450 1A2 Inhibitors. Incubation of duloxetine with rat liver microsomes with cytosol, NADPH, and GSH in the presence of the P450 2D6 inhibitor quinidine (10 µM) diminished all GSH adduct formation based on peak area (Table 1). In the presence of the P450 1A2 inhibitor furafylline (10 µM), there was no or little inhibition of G1/G2/G3 based on peak area but some inhibition of the GSH adducts G4/G5. MetaSite Metabolism Predictions for Thiophene Containing Drugs. The sites of metabolism of duloxetine and the thiophene containing compounds were predicted using MetaSite with the (1) built-in homology model and (2) with the corresponding imported P450 crystal structure from the PDB (see above for codes). The top three predictions for each compound are shown in Table 2. For methapyrilene, the MetaSite liver consensus model (P450 2C9, P450 2D6, and P450 3A4) was used for predictions since no phenotyping information was available. The findings for each compound are reported briefly below. Duloxetine. Both P450 2D6 and P450 1A2 were used to predict sites of metabolism because duloxetine has been reported to be a substrate for these isoforms (23, 24), and our inhibition results indicated that these P450s were involved with GSH conjugate formation. With the MetaSite P450 2D6 homology model, the methyl group was ranked first, while the second and third ranked sites were carbon atoms four and six in the naphthalene ring, respectively. With the imported P450 2D6 crystal structure, the methyl group remained first, while the second and third ranked sites were carbon atoms six and four/ five (tie) in the naphthalene ring, respectively. With the MetaSite P450 1A2 homology model, the methyl group remained first, while the second and third ranked sites were the thiophene sulfur and the tertiary carbon, respectively. With the imported P450 1A2 crystal structure, the methyl group remained first, while the second and third ranked sites were the same as those for the crystal structure of P450 2D6. Tienilic Acid. P450 2C9 was used to predict sites of metabolism on the basis of reports in the literature that tienilic acid is a mechanism based inhibitor of this isozyme (25) and forms a covalent adduct with the protein (26) with thiophene as the site of bioactivation (27). With both the MetaSite

GSH Conjugates of Duloxetine

Chem. Res. Toxicol., Vol. 23, No. 8, 2010 1397

Figure 2. LC/MS/MS with SRM detection of microsomal incubations of duloxetine in the presence of GSH and cytosol. Three GSH conjugates with m/z 621 (G1/G2 and G3) are present in rats (A), while only G1 and G3 are detected in humans (B). Two GSH conjugates with m/z 637 (G4 and G5) are present in rats (C), while none are detected in humans (D).

homology model and with the imported P450 2C9 crystal structure, all top three sites were on thiophene with differences only in the numerical ranking of particular atoms (Table 2). Suprofen. P450 2C9 was used to predict sites of metabolism on the basis of reports in the literature that suprofen is a mechanism based inhibitor of this isozyme (25) and forms a GSH conjugate on thiophene (13). As for tienilic acid, all top sites were on thiophene for both the MetaSite homology model and with the imported P450 2C9 crystal structure with differences only in the numerical ranking of particular atoms (Table 2). Ticlopidine. P450 2C19 was used to predict sites of metabolism on the basis of reports in the literature that ticlopidine is a mechanism based inhibitor of P450 2C19 (28), and GSH conjugates have been reported on thiophene for ticlopidine (29). With the homology model, carbons four and five of the chlorobenzene ring and the carbon of the bridging

methylene were the top three sites, respectively (Table 2). As no crystal structure of P450 2C19 was available, no further modeling with MetaSite was performed. OSI-930. P450 3A4 was used to predict sites of metabolism on the basis of reports in the literature that OSI-930 is activated by this enzyme and forms a GSH conjugate involving thiophene (30). With both the homology model and the imported P450 3A4 crystal structure, the benzylic carbon and isoquinoline nitrogen ranked first or second, while the thiophene sulfur ranked third (Table 2). Methapyrilene. The liver consensus model (P450s 2D6, 2C9, and 3A4) was used to predict sites of metabolism because phenotyping information for methapyrilene was absent. With both the homology model and with each of the imported P450 crystal structures, the dimethyl group was ranked first. The carbons in the ethyl bridge ranked second and third with slight

1398


Wu et al.

Figure 3. Tandem mass spectrum acquired by direct infusion on the LTQ of GSH conjugates G1/G2/G3 (A) and G4/G5 (B) with the proposed origin of the product ions. The ion at m/z 306 in G1 represents GS+, while the product ion at m/z 308 in G3 represents GSH.

Table 1. Inhibition of GSH Conjugate Formation from Duloxetine in Rat Liver Microsomes with Cytosol in the Presence of Selective P450 Inhibitors % inhibition of the GSH conjugatea inhibitor

G1/G2b

G3

G4/G5b

none furafylline quinidine

100 0 29.9

100 3.7 38.2

100 30.6 84.2

a Values are expressed as the mean percentage peak area relative to that of the control; n ) 2. b Because of partial resolution of peaks, % inhibition was calculated by combining peak areas for both conjugates.

variations depending on the imported P450 (Table 2). Atoms in the thiophene ring were not among the likely sites predicted. Rigid Docking and IFD. Docking was performed first using Glide-SP rigid docking and then with IFD. The conformations

found from docking (i.e., poses) were ranked and examined individually. Individual compounds are discussed below. Duloxetine. Rigid docking found a low energy conformation, pose1, with the thiophene within 3.5 Å to the heme (Figure 4A), which fits well into the P450 2D6 active site and formed stabilizing hydrogen bonds. In contrast, the optimal low energy conformation, pose2, from IFD placed naphthalene within approximately 4.1 Å to the heme (Figure 4B). However, on the basis of the quantum mechanical calculations the rigid docking pose was roughly 6.2 kcal/mol higher with respect to strain energy than the IFD pose. For pose2, small side chain conformational changes for amino acids Leu213, Leu220, and Leu484 were necessary to accommodate duloxetine in the active site. Stabilizing hydrogen bonds formed between the methyl amine on duloxetine and (1) the carboxyl group of Glu216 (RNO



Table 2. Thiophene Containing Drugs Investigated, P450 Isoform and Site of GSH Conjugation Together with the Predicted Site of Bioactivation Based on MetaSitea or IFD

a Top 3 atoms predicted to be metabolized; the blue circle indicates rank 1. b Using the P450 homology model. c Using the P450 crystal structure imported from PDB, except for P450 2C19 which was a homology model. d Using the liver consensus model. N.A., not applicable.

) 3.1 Å and 3.2 Å) and (2) the hydroxyl group of Ser304 (RNO ) 2.9 Å). Moreover, stabilizing hydrophobic contacts were formed for both naphthalene (with amino acids Phe120 and Leu484, and heme) and thiophene (with amino acids Leu220 and Leu213). When docking to P450 1A2, the low energy pose for duloxetine from rigid docking (Figure 4C) displayed a binding mode similar to that from IFD (Figure 4D), and both poses placed the naphthalene ring close to the heme, with the shortest contact distance as 3.4 Å and 3.7 Å for rigid docking and IFD, respectively. For both poses, there were also similar hydrophobic interactions for the naphthalene ring (with Ile386, Leu497, and Ala317) and the thiophene ring (with Phe 125, Phe 226, and Phe260). For the rigid docking pose, however, only a single hydrogen bond between duloxetine and the enzyme was formed between the methyl amine and Asp313 (RNO ) 3.0 Å), as the hydroxyl oxygen atom of Ser122 was about 4.0 Å away from the amino group. However, with a small conforma-

tional adjustment for Ser122 and Asp313, the IFD pose formed better electrostatic interactions between duloxetine and P450 1A2, with two hydrogen bonds formed for the methyl amine to the carboxyl group of Asp313 (RNO ) 2.7 Å, a shorter and hence stronger contact than for rigid docking) and the hydroxyl group of Ser122 (RNO ) 3.0 Å). Ticlopidine. With the P450 2C19 homology model, although a low energy pose was found by both rigid docking and IFD, the IFD pose placed ticlopidine deeper in the active site with the center of the CN bond in ticlopidine roughly 1.5 Å closer to the iron, indicating tighter binding. In particular, in the IFD pose ticlopidine was surrounded by a hydrophobic pocket formed by the heme and nine amino acids: Thr301, Ala297, Ile205, Val113, Phe114, Phe476, Leu366, Ile362, and Leu361, following small conformational changes for the side chains of Phe476, Leu366, Ile362, and Thr301 (see Supporting Information). In this low energy pose, ticlopidine was positioned such

1400


Wu et al.

Figure 4. Duloxetine in the active site of P450 2D6 or P450 1A2 from rigid docking or IFD. Rigid docking with P450 2D6 (A) positioned thiophene close to the heme but resulted in an unfavorable high energy pose due to the disruption of the stabilizing hydrogen bonding network (see Discussion). In contrast, IFD with P450 2D6 (B) found an optimal low energy pose with naphthalene positioned within 5 Å of the heme in the active site. For P450 1A2, although the overall orientations for duloxetine in the active site were quite similar, with rigid docking (C) duloxetine only formed one hydrogen bond, whereas it formed two hydrogen bonds following IFD (D). Color scheme: carbon (duloxetine, green; initial protein structure, gray; IFD pose, cyan); oxygen (red); nitrogen (blue); sulfur (orange); and polar hydrogen (white). Iron is represented by a sphere. Amino acid side chains that interact with duloxetine are identified.

that the distance of C3 in the thiophene ring to the heme was approximately 3.6 Å. Suprofen and Tienilic Acid. Suprofen had a binding mode very similar to that of P450 2C9 as flurbiprofen (ligand in the crystal structure) by either rigid docking or IFD (Figure 5A). However, for tienilic acid, another molecule similar to flurbiprofen, rigid docking could not generate a good low energy pose, whereas IFD found a pose quite close to that of suprofen (Figure 5B). Hydrogen bonds were formed between the carboxylate group present in both drugs and the side chains of Arg108 and Asn204. Hydrophobic contacts existed with both amino acids (Gly296, Ala297, Phe114, and Leu366) and the heme. For both suprofen and tienilic acid, the thiophene ring was positioned close to the heme, with the distance to the iron approximately 4.2 Å and 4.6 Å, respectively. OSI-930. No optimal binding pose for OSI-930 was found by rigid docking with P450 3A4. In contrast, IFD found a low energy pose with hydrogen bonds between the side chain of amino acid Arg212 and hydrophobic contacts with Phe108,

Phe215, Met371, and the heme (see Supporting Information). Some conformational changes were required for the side chains of amino acids Arg212, Phe215, and Phe108 to allow an optimal fit within the active site. The thiophene group was close to the heme, with the distance to the iron approximately 3.3 Å.

Discussion Duloxetine is characterized by the presence of naphthalene and thiophene structures, which are known for their propensity to undergo bioactivation to form GSH conjugates and/or to covalently bind to proteins (13, 31-33). Thus, GSH conjugate formation from duloxetine might arise from several reactive intermediates including arene oxides and quinones formed on naphthalene, and epoxide or sulfoxides formed on thiophene. In our current study, several GSH conjugates were identified in both human and rat microsomal incubations by sub-ppm mass accuracy following direct infusion high resolution mass spectrometry. We used SA% considerations to provide additional



Figure 5. Rigid docking pose for Suprofen (A) and IFD pose for tienilic acid (B) aligned with flurbiprofen (bound ligand) present in the X-ray structure of P450 2C9. Although both drugs are similar to flurbiprofen and rigid docking found a suitable low energy pose for suprofen, IFD was necessary to find a suitable pose for tienilic acid. Color scheme: carbon (Suprofen, tienilic acid, green; X-ray structure, gray; IFD pose, cyan); other atoms are the same as those in Figure 4.

Scheme 1. Proposed Bioactivation Pathways for Duloxetine to GSH Conjugates*

* The precise regiochemistry of GSH addition or hydroxylation of the napthalene ring is unknown; These structures are for illustrative purposes only.

support for the identity of these GSH conjugates, which can be easily obtained by SIM of the molecular ions. In this regard, it is recognized that the isotope profile of the molecular ion contains valuable information for elemental composition determination, and the performance of the LTQ/Orbitrap has been recently evaluated with respect to SA% (21). The observed SE% for the GSH conjugates G1/G2/G3 and G4/G5 with elemental compositions C28H37N4O8S2 and C28H37N4O9S2 ranked the elemental compositions near the top of the list of possible elemental formulas consistent with the search parameters, and the magnitude of these SE’s are in line with those previously observed. Finally, tandem mass spectrometry of these conjugates clearly indicated that the site of bioactivation in duloxetine was exclusively on naphthalene rather than thiophene. On the basis of our available mass spectra, we propose that bioactivation of duloxetine likely occurs via an epoxide intermediate (Scheme 1) analogous to the GSH conjugate of naphthalene 1,2-epoxide (34). We found that all of the GSH conjugates depended on

catalysis by GST as the GSH conjugates were not formed in absence of expressed human GST or cytosol (human or rat). In contrast, the GSH conjugate of naphthalene 1,2-epoxide was found to occur nonenzymatically (35). Both P450 2D6 and P4501A2 are involved in the bioactivation of duloxetine on the basis of the diminished GSH conjugate levels in the presence of quinidine or furafylline, respectively. These observations are consistent with in Vitro studies in human liver microsomes, which have shown that duloxetine is a substrate for both of these isoforms (24, 25). In silico approaches employing quantum mechanical calculations have been used previously to help rationalize reactive metabolite formation (36, 37), while active site docking has been employed to help rationalize the bioactivation of diclofenac and a dihydropyrazole containing the drug candidate (38, 39). The program MetaSite has been used to improve the metabolic stability of drug candidates by predicting likely sites of metabolism (40). High resolution X-ray crystal structures deposited in the PDB (41, 42) have enabled significant progress in predicting drug metabolism by modeling the interactions between small molecules and P450 enzymes (16, 37, 43, 44). However, it remains challenging to correctly predict drug metabolism sites using in silico techniques. For example, the P450 active site is both large and flexible, which makes it difficult to find the global free energy conformation for the protein-drug complex. There are also challenges in calculating the binding free energy accurately in order to rank the resulting poses (45, 46) or deciding the relevant activation energies for the enzyme reaction (47). Thus, drug metabolism predictions may vary depending on the approach used and are presently limited to providing qualitative information. In our work, we compared two MetaSite calculations using (1) the built-in P450 homology model or (2) with imported P450 crystal structures to rationalize the site of bioactivation for thiophene drugs that form GSH conjugates. Our duloxetine experiments indicated that naphthalene was the site of bioactivation. For P450 2D6, MetaSite predicted that naphthalene was the site for metabolism irrespective of the approach used. For P450 1A2, however, the MetaSite homology model predicted thiophene as the site of bioactivation, while calculations based on the P450 1A2 crystal structures predicted naphthalene (Table 2). For the other drugs investigated, MetaSite

1402


calculations were in agreement with no significant discrepancies between calculations based on a P450 homology model or with the corresponding imported P450 crystal structure; therefore, in the discussions below we make no distinction between these approaches. We also compared two docking approaches, namely, rigid docking or IFD with the same P450 crystal structures used for MetaSite. In certain situations, rigid docking is sufficient for finding a reasonable pose. For example, we found that rigid docking identified a suitable pose for suprofen (i.e., with thiophene near the heme) in the active site of P450 2C9 (Figure 5A), ostensibly because it is similar to the cocrystallized ligand (flurbiprofen). However, rigid docking with P450 2C9 did not work well for tienilic acid (Figure 5B). IFD was developed specifically to address the issue of binding site flexibility (17), and satisfactory performance has been reported in modeling protein-drug interactions in the active site of P450 enzymes by several groups (48-50). Currently, IFD provides the most realistic approach to model drug-protein interactions. We applied IFD to several important P450 enzymes (2D6, 1A2, 2C9, 2C19, and 3A4), and our results are consistent with the experimental findings. Specifically, the low energy pose for each of the systems revealed contacts of less than 5 Å, the maximum distance we considered reasonable for metabolism, between the heme and naphthalene for duloxetine or thiophene for the other compounds investigated. A major strength of IFD is that if necessary it could often identify an alternate low-energy conformation for an amino acid side chain if the original conformation prevented the drug from fitting the active site. For example, the methyl group of Thr301 prevented successful rigid docking of tienilic acid to P450 2C9, whereas with IFD the methyl group was moved slightly to allow an alternate low energy pose. IFD for duloxetine to P450 2D6 was another example where residues in the active site (Leu484, Phe483, Leu220, and Leu213) adjusted to accommodate duloxetine and allow favorable interactions. In the resulting pose following these movements, naphthalene was positioned close to the heme and formed hydrophobic contacts with nearby residues, consistent with our findings that naphthalene was the site of bioactivation. Although rigid docking of duloxetine positioned thiophene close to the heme, quantum mechanical calculations revealed a substantially higher ligand strain energy indicating that this was much less likely to occur. For P450 1A2, the rigid docking pose for duloxetine was quite similar to that of IFD, but the IFD pose optimized the electrostatic interactions between the ligand and protein with small conformational changes for Asp313 and Ser122. When IFD was applied to ticlopidine docked to P450 2C19, several low energy poses were observed. Although none of these poses formed specific polar interactions with the protein, the pose with thiophene close to the heme was optimal since it formed better hydrophobic interactions with the protein following small side chain movements for several active site residues (Phe476, leu366, Ile362, and Thr301). When IFD was applied to OSI930 docked to P450 3A4, the best pose placed thiophene near the heme, although significant movement for Arg 212 was observed. However, the cocrystallized structures of P450 3A4 with two different ligands revealed extreme structural flexibility for the active site of P450 3A4 (51), suggesting that the movement we observed to accommodate OSI-930 is reasonable. For suprofen, tienilic acid, and OSI-930, MetaSite correctly predicted that thiophene was metabolized by P450 2C9 or P450 3A4, and IFD lead to the same conclusion. However, MetaSite did not predict any atoms in the thiophene moiety as among

Wu et al.

the top sites of metabolism for ticlopidine by P450 2C19, while IFD did place thiophene close to heme. Likewise, MetaSite also failed to predict any atoms of thiophene for methapyrilene using a liver consensus model since a specific P450 has not been defined, despite reports of a GSH conjugate on thiophene (52). No docking was undertaken for methapyrilene due to the lack of phenotyping information. Thus, our analysis reveals that MetaSite predictions were consistent with the observed bioactivation outcomes for four of the six compounds investigated. When the drug is similar in shape to the ligand in the crystal structure, rigid docking can be successful. However, IFD had overall better success in predicting the observed sites of bioactivation presumably due to its greater ability to accommodate diverse drug structures in the active site. In conclusion, GSH conjugates of duloxetine were identified in microsomal incubations and are formed through bioactivation by P450 2D6 and P450 1A2. We propose that the naphthalene ring undergoes bioactivation by epoxidation (Scheme 1). Although thiophene is considered a structural alert due to its recognized bioactivation in several drugs that have been withdrawn from the market (e.g., tienilic acid), no evidence was obtained for a reactive metabolite derived from thiophene bioactivation in duloxetine. Consistent with these experimental results are the in silico findings of MetaSite and IFD which predicted that naphthalene was the likely site of metabolism. Of the two docking approaches, IFD gave more realistic binding poses than rigid docking and is preferred for these types of investigations. Overall, in silico tools provide useful insight into drug metabolism and may help to better predict reactive metabolite formation. For example, if a structural alert is present on a drug candidate, conducting an in silico experiment may quickly help to decide if this might be subject to metabolism and subsequent bioactivation. There are significant caveats to using in silico tools in that a quantitative estimate as to the degree of metabolism is not provided. Nevertheless, the issue of bioactivation as relates to drug toxicity is a challenging endeavor, and any additional insight that can be provided by in silico approaches, despite their limitations, should be welcome. Finally, it should be emphasized that the degree of bioactivation for duloxetine we observed was very low, especially in human microsomes, and the relevance of this bioactivation to hepatoxicity in humans is unknown. Acknowledgment. We are grateful to Dr. Rasmy Talaat for his valuable discussions and to Dr. William DeMaio and Dr. Suresh Singh for their critical review of the manuscript. Also, we thank Dr. Zhiyong Zhou and Dr. Hege Beard for their help with the Schro¨dinger software. Supporting Information Available: Homology modeling for P450 2C19 and figures with IFD results for ticlopidine to P450 2C19 and for OSI-930 to P450 3A4. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

References (1) Kasamo, K., Blier, P., and De Montigny, C. (1996) Blockade of the serotonin and norepinephrine uptake processes by duloxetine: in vitro and in vivo studies in the rat brain. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 277, 278–286. (2) Raskin, J., Smith Timothy, R., Wong, K., Pritchett Yili, L., D’Souza Deborah, N., Iyengar, S., and Wernicke, J. F. (2006) Duloxetine versus routine care in the long-term management of diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain. J. Palliat. Med. 9, 29–40. (3) Rynn, M., Russell, J., Erickson, J., Detke, M. J., Ball, S., Dinkel, J., Rickels, K., and Raskin, J. (2008) Efficacy and safety of duloxetine in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder: a flexible-dose, progressive-titration, placebo-controlled trial. Depression Anxiety 25, 182–189.

GSH Conjugates of Duloxetine (4) Wohlreich, M. M., Mallinckrodt, C. H., Prakash, A., Watkin, J. G., and Carter, W. P. (2007) Duloxetine for the treatment of major depressive disorder: safety and tolerability associated with dose escalation. Depression Anxiety 24, 41–52. (5) McIntyre, R. S., Panjwani, Z. D., Nguyen, H. T., Woldeyohannes, H. O., Alsuwaidan, M., Soczynska, J. K., Lourenco, M. T., Konarski, J. Z., and Kennedy, S. H. (2008) The hepatic safety profile of duloxetine: a review. Expert Opin. Drug Metab. Toxicol. 4, 281–285. (6) Uetrecht, J. (2008) Idiosyncratic drug reactions: Past, present, and future. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 21, 84–92. (7) Kaplowitz, N. (2005) Idiosyncratic drug hepatotoxicity. Nat. ReV. Drug DiscoVery 4, 489–499. (8) Erve, J. C. L. (2006) Chemical toxicology: reactive intermediates and their role in pharmacology and toxicology. Expert Opin. Drug Metab. Toxicol. 2, 923–946. (9) Kalgutkar, A. S., Fate, G., Didiuk, M. T., and Bauman, J. (2008) Toxicophores, reactive metabolites and drug safety: when is it a cause for concern? Expert ReV. Clin. Pharmacol. 1, 515–531. (10) Evans, D. C., Watt, A. P., Nicoll-Griffith, D. A., and Baillie, T. A. (2004) Drug-protein adducts: An industry perspective on minimizing the potential for drug bioactivation in drug discovery and development. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 17, 3–16. (11) Neau, E., Dansette, P. M., Andronik, V., and Mansuy, D. (1990) Hydroxylation of the thiophene ring by hepatic monooxygenases. Evidence for 5-hydroxylation of 2-aroylthiophenes as a general metabolic pathway using a simple UV-visible assay. Biochem. Pharmacol. 39, 1101–1107. (12) Lantz, R. J., Gillespie, T. A., Rash, T. J., Kuo, F., Skinner, M., Kuan, H. Y., and Knadler, M. P. (2003) Metabolism, excretion, and pharmacokinetics of duloxetine in healthy human subjects. Drug Metab. Dispos. 31, 1142–1150. (13) O’Donnell, J. P., Dalvie, D. K., Kalgutkar, A. S., and Obach, R. S. (2003) Mechanism-based inactivation of human recombinant P450 2C9 by the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug suprofen. Drug Metab. Dispos. 31, 1369–1377. (14) Lecoeur, S., Bonierbale, E., Challine, D., Gautier, J.-C., Valadon, P., Dansette, P. M., Catinot, R., Ballet, F., Mansuy, D., and Beaune, P. H. (1994) Specificity of in vitro covalent binding of tienilic acid metabolites to human liver microsomes in relationship to the type of hepatotoxicity: Comparison with two directly hepatotoxic drugs. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 7, 434–442. (15) Gan, J., Ruan, Q., He, B., Zhu, M., Shyu, W. C., and Griffith Humphreys, W. (2009) In vitro screening of 50 highly prescribed drugs for thiol adduct formation-comparison of potential for drug-induced toxicity and extent of adduct formation. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 22, 690– 698. (16) Afzelius, L., Arnby, C. H., Broo, A., Carlsson, L., Isaksson, C., Jurva, U., Kjellander, B., Kolmodin, K., Nilsson, K., Raubacher, F., and Weidolf, L. (2007) State-of-the-art tools for computational site of metabolism predictions: comparative analysis, mechanistical insights, and future applications. Drug Metab. ReV. 39, 61–86. (17) Sherman, W., Day, T., Jacobson, M. P., Friesner, R. A., and Farid, R. (2006) Novel procedure for modeling ligand/receptor induced fit effects. J. Med. Chem. 49, 534–553. (18) de Graaf, C., Oostenbrink, C., Keizers, P. H. J., van der Wijst, T., Jongejan, A., and Vermeulen, N. P. E. (2006) Catalytic site prediction and virtual screening of cytochrome P450 2D6 substrates by consideration of water and rescoring in automated docking. J. Med. Chem. 49, 2417–2430. (19) Cruciani, G., Carosati, E., De Boeck, B., Ethirajulu, K., Mackie, C., Howe, T., and Vianello, R. (2005) MetaSite: Understanding metabolism in human cytochromes from the perspective of the chemist. J. Med. Chem. 48, 6970–6979. (20) Erve, J. C. L., DeMaio, W., and Talaat, R. E. (2008) Rapid metabolite identification with sub parts-per-million mass accuracy from biological matrices by direct infusion nanoelectrospray ionization after clean-up on a ZipTip and LTQ/Orbitrap mass spectrometry. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 22, 3015–3026. (21) Erve, J. C. L., Gu, M., Wang, Y., DeMaio, W., and Talaat, R. E. (2009) Spectral accuracy of molecular ions in an LTQ/Orbitrap mass spectrometer and implications for elemental composition determination. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 20, 2058–2069. (22) Rai, B. K., and Fiser, A. (2006) Multiple mapping method: a novel approach to the sequence-to-structure alignment problem in comparative protein structure modeling. Proteins 63, 644–61. (23) Lobo, E. D., Bergstrom, R. F., Reddy, S., Quinlan, T., Chappell, J., Hong, Q., Ring, B., and Knadler, M. P. (2008) In vitro and in vivo evaluations of cytochrome P450 1A2 interactions with duloxetine. Clin. Pharmacokinet. 47, 191–202. (24) Skinner, M. H., Kuan, H.-Y., Pan, A., Sathirakul, K., Knadler, M. P., Gonzales, C. R., Yeo, K. P., Reddy, S., Lim, M., Ayan-Oshodi, M.,


(25)

(26)

(27)

(28)

(29)

(30)

(31)

(32) (33)

(34) (35) (36)

(37) (38)

(39)

(40)

(41)

(42) (43) (44)

and Wise, S. D. (2003) Duloxetine is both an inhibitor and a substrate of cytochrome P4502D6 in healthy volunteers. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 73, 170–177. Hutzler, J. M., Balogh Larissa, M., Zientek, M., Kumar, V., and Tracy Timothy, S. (2009) Mechanism-based inactivation of cytochrome P450 2C9 by tienilic acid and (()-suprofen: A comparison of kinetics and probe substrate selection. Drug Metab. Dispos. 37, 59–65. Koenigs, L. L., Peter, R. M., Hunter, A. P., Haining, R. L., Rettie, A. E., Friedberg, T., Pritchard, M. P., Shou, M., Rushmore, T. H., and Trager, W. F. (1999) Electrospray ionization mass spectrometric analysis of intact cytochrome P450: Identification of tienilic acid adducts to P450 2C9. Biochemistry 38, 2312–2319. Valadon, P., Dansette, P. M., Girault, J.-P., Amar, C., and Mansuy, D. (1996) Thiophene sulfoxides as reactive metabolites: Formation upon microsomal oxidation of a 3-aroylthiophene and fate in the presence of nucleophiles in vitro and in vivo. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 9, 1403–1413. Nishiya, Y., Hagihara, K., Kurihara, A., Okudaira, N., Farid, N. A., Okazaki, O., and Ikeda, T. (2009) Comparison of mechanism-based inhibition of human cytochrome P4502C19 by ticlopidine, clopidogrel and prasugrel. Xenobiotica 39, 836–843. Shimizu, S., Atsumi, R., Nakazawa, T., Fujimaki, Y., Sudo, K., and Okazaki, O. (2009) Metabolism of ticlopidine in rats: identification of the main biliary metabolite as a glutathione conjugate of ticlopidine S-oxide. Drug Metab. Dispos. 37, 1904–1915. Medower, C., Wen, L., and Johnson, W. W. (2008) Cytochrome P450 oxidation of the thiophene-containing anticancer drug 3-[(quinolin4-ylmethyl)-amino]-thiophene-2-carboxylic acid (4-trifluoromethoxyphenyl)-amide to an electrophilic intermediate. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 21, 1570–1577. Dalvie, D. K., Kalgutkar, A. S., Khojasteh-Bakht, S. C., Obach, R. S., and O’Donnell, J. P. (2002) Biotransformation reactions of fivemembered aromatic heterocyclic rings. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 15, 269– 299. Rietjens, I. M., den Besten, C., Hanzlik, R. P., and van Bladeren, P. J. (1997) Cytochrome P450-catalyzed oxidation of halobenzene derivatives. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 10, 629–635. van Bladeren, P. J., Vyas, K. P., Sayer, J. M., Ryan, D. E., Thomas, P. E., Levin, W., and Jerina, D. M. (1984) Stereoselectivity of cytochrome P-450c in the formation of naphthalene and anthracene 1,2-oxides. J. Biol. Chem. 259, 8966–8973. Buonarati, M., Morin, D., Plopper, C., and Buckpitt, A. (1989) Glutathione depletion and cytotoxicity by naphthalene 1,2-oxide in isolated hepatocytes. Chem.-Biol. Interact. 71, 147–165. Cho, M., Jedrychowski, R., Hammock, B., and Buckpitt, A. (1994) Reactive naphthalene metabolite binding to hemoglobin and albumin. Fundam. Appl. Toxicol. 22, 26–33. Erve, J. C. L., Svensson, M. A., von Euler-Chelpin, H., and KlassonWehler, E. (2004) Characterization of glutathione conjugates of the remoxipride hydroquinone metabolite NCQ-344 formed in vitro and detection following oxidation by human neutrophils. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 17, 564–571. Sun, H., and Scott Dennis, O. (2010) Structure-based drug metabolism predictions for drug design. Chem. Biol. Drug Des. 75, 3–17. Yan, Z., Li, J., Huebert, N., Caldwell, G. W., Du, Y., and Zhong, H. (2005) Detection of a novel reactive metabolite of diclofenac: Evidence for CYP2C9-mediated bioactivation via arene oxides. Drug Metab. Dispos. 33, 706–713. Chen, H., Zientek, M., Jalaie, M., Zhang, Y., Bigge, C., and Mutlib, A. (2009) Characterization of cytochrome P450-mediated bioactivation of a compound containing the chemical scaffold, 4,5-dihydropyrazole1-carboxylic acid-(4-chlorophenyl amide), to a chemically reactive p-chlorophenyl isocyanate intermediate in human liver microsomes. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 22, 1603–1612. Boyer, D., Bauman, J. N., Walker, D. P., Kapinos, B., Karki, K., and Kalgutkar, A. S. (2009) Utility of MetaSite in improving metabolic stability of the neutral indomethacin amide derivative and selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor 2-(1-(4-chlorobenzoyl)-5-methoxy-2-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-N-phenethyl-acetamide. Drug Metab. Dispos. 37, 999–1008. Williams, P. A., Cosme, J., Vinkovic, D. M., Ward, A., Angove, H. C., Day, P. J., Vonrhein, C., Tickle, I. J., and Jhoti, H. (2004) Crystal structures of human cytochrome P450 3A4 bound to metyrapone and progesterone. Science 305, 683–686. Williams, P. A., Cosme, J., Ward, A., Angove, H. C., Vinkovic, D. M., and Jhoti, H. (2003) Crystal structure of human cytochrome P450 2C9 with bound warfarin. Nature 424, 464–468. de Graaf, C., Vermeulen, N. P. E., and Feenstra, K. A. (2005) Cytochrome P450 in Silico: An Integrative Modeling Approach. J. Med. Chem. 48, 2725–2755. Stjernschantz, E., Vermeulen, N. P. E., and Oostenbrink, C. (2008) Computational prediction of drug binding and rationalisation of

1404

(45) (46)

(47) (48)


selectivity towards cytochromes P450. Expert Opin. Drug Metab. Toxicol. 4, 513–527. Leach, A. R., Shoichet, B. K., and Peishoff, C. E. (2006) Prediction of protein-ligand interactions. Docking and scoring: Successes and gaps. J. Med. Chem. 49, 5851–5855. Mobley, D. L., Graves, A. P., Chodera, J. D., McReynolds, A. C., Shoichet, B. K., and Dill, K. A. (2007) Predicting absolute ligand binding free energies to a simple model site. J. Mol. Biol. 371, 1118– 1134. Rydberg, P., Vasanthanathan, P., Oostenbrink, C., and Olsen, L. (2009) Fast prediction of cytochrome P450 mediated drug metabolism. ChemMedChem 4, 2070–2079. Wang, H., Cheng, J. D., Montgomery, D., and Cheng, K. C. (2009) Evaluation of the binding orientations of testosterone in the active site of homology models for CYP2C11 and CYP2C13. Biochem. Pharmacol. 78, 406–413.

Wu et al. (49) Shelley, M. (2009) Prediction of Cytochrome P450 Mediated Oxidation Using Induced Fit Docking, Abstracts of Papers, 237th ACS National Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, Mar 22-26, 2009; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, COMP-217. (50) Kotsuma, M., Hanzawa, H., Iwata, Y., Takahashi, K., and Tokui, T. (2008) Novel binding mode of the acidic CYP2D6 substrates pactimibe and its metabolite R-125528. Drug Metab. Dispos. 36, 1938–1943. (51) Ekroos, M., and Sjoegren, T. (2006) Structural basis for ligand promiscuity in cytochrome P 450 3A4. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103, 13682–13687. (52) Graham, E. E., Walsh, R. J., Hirst, C. M., Maggs, J. L., Martin, S., Wild, M. J., Wilson, I. D., Harding, J. R., Kenna, J. G., Peter, R. M., Williams, D. P., and Park, B. K. (2008) Identification of the thiophene ring of methapyrilene as a novel bioactivation-dependent hepatic toxicophore. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 326, 657–671.

TX100141D

Characterization of Glutathione Conjugates of Duloxetine by Mass

Recommend Documents