Predicting drug metabolism: a site of metabolism prediction tool applied to the cytochrome P450 2C9

J Med Chem. 2003 Jun 5;46(12):2313-24. doi: 10.1021/jm021104i.

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to develop a method for predicting the site at which molecules will be metabolized by CYP 2C9 (cytochrome P450 2C9) using a previously reported protein homology model of the enzyme. Such a method would be of great help in designing new compounds with a better pharmacokinetic profile, or in designing prodrugs where the compound needs to be metabolized in order to become active. The methodology is based on a comparison between alignment-independent descriptors derived from GRID Molecular Interaction Fields for the CYP 2C9 active site, and a distance-based representation of the substrate. The predicted site of metabolism is reported as a ranking list of all the hydrogen atoms of each substrate molecule. Eighty-seven CYP 2C9-catalyzed oxidative reactions reported in the literature have been analyzed. In more than 90% of these cases, the hydrogen atom ranked at the first, second, or third position was the experimentally reported site of oxidation.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases / chemistry*
  • Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases / metabolism
  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C9
  • Humans
  • Hydrogen / chemistry
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations / chemistry*
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations / metabolism
  • Protein Binding
  • Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship

Substances

  • Pharmaceutical Preparations
  • Hydrogen
  • CYP2C9 protein, human
  • Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C9
  • Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases