Abstract

The clinical use of carbamazepine (CBZ), an anticonvulsant, is associated with a variety of idiosyncratic adverse reactions that are likely related to the formation of chemically reactive metabolites. CBZ-10,11-epoxide (CBZE), a pharmacologically active metabolite of CBZ, is so stable in vitro and in vivo that the potential for the epoxide to covalently interact with macromolecules has not been fully explored. In this study, two glutathione (GSH) adducts were observed when CBZE was incubated with GSH in the absence of biological matrices and cofactors (e.g., liver microsomes and NADPH). The chemical reactivity of CBZE was further confirmed by the in vitro finding that [¹⁴C]CBZE formed covalent protein adducts in human plasma as well as in human liver microsomes (HLMs) without NADPH. The two GSH adducts formed in the chemical reaction of CBZE were identical to the two major GSH adducts observed in the HLM incubation of CBZ, indicating that the 10,11-epoxidation represents a bioactivation pathway of CBZ. The two GSH adducts were isolated and identified as two diastereomers of 10-hydroxy-11-glutathionyl-CBZ by NMR. In addition, the covalent binding of [¹⁴C]CBZE was significantly increased in the HLM incubation upon addition of NADPH, indicating that CBZE can be further bioactivated by HLMs. To our knowledge, this is the first time the metabolite CBZE has been confirmed for its ability to form covalent protein adducts and the identity of the two CBZE-glutathionyl adducts has been confirmed by NMR. These represent important findings in the bioactivation mechanism of CBZ.