Abstract
CYP2A13, a human cytochrome P450 enzyme expressed mainly in the respiratory tract, is believed to play an important role in the initiation of smoking-induced lung cancer. CYP2A13.1 has high efficiency in the metabolic activation of a major tobacco-specific carcinogenic nitrosamine, 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK). CYP2A13*2, a variant allele, was previously found to be associated with decreased incidence of lung adenocarcinoma in smokers. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the CYP2A13.2 protein has decreased enzyme activity and/or expression levels in the lung, compared with CYP2A13.1. CYP2A13.2 has two sequence variations from CYP2A13.1: R25Q and R257C. We compared the activities of heterologously expressed CYP2A13.1 and CYP2A13.2 toward several known CYP2A13.1 substrates: NNK, N-nitrosomethylphenylamine, N,N-dimethylaniline, 2′-methoxyacetophenone, and hexamethylphosphoramide. Our results indicated that CYP2A13.2 was 20 to 40% less active than CYP2A13.1 with the substrates tested. We also determined the levels of the CYP2A13*2 mRNA, relative to the level of the CYP2A13*1 mRNA, in the lung tissue from *1/*2 heterozygotes. We found that the CYP2A13*2 allele was associated with a level of allelic expression ∼40% lower than that of the CYP2A13*1 allele. Sequence analysis of the promoter region of the CYP2A13*2 allele identified a 26-nucleotide deletion. Functional analysis of a 2-kilobase pair CYP2A13-luciferase promoter construct indicated that the 26-nucleotide deletion causes decreases in CYP2A13 promoter activity in the A549 human lung cell line. These findings suggest that the reported association of the CYP2A13*2 allele with decreased incidences of lung adenocarcinoma in smokers can be at least partly explained by a decrease in CYP2A13 function.
Footnotes
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This work was supported in part by U.S. Public Health Service Grant CA092596 from the National Institutes of Health.
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doi:10.1124/dmd.108.022822.
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ABBREVIATIONS: P450, cytochrome P450; NNK, 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone; SNPs, single-nucleotide polymorphisms; WT, wild-type; HMPA, hexamethylphosphoramide; 2′-MAP, 2′-methoxyacetophenone; DMA, N,N-dimethylaniline; NMPhA, N-nitrosomethylphenylamine; HPLC, high-performance liquid chromatography; bis-Tris, 2-[bis(2-hydroxyethyl)amino]-2-(hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-diol; TBST, Tris-buffered saline (100 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.5, 150 mM NaCl, and 2.7 mM KCl) containing 0.1% Tween 20; bp, base pair; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; CPR, cytochrome P450 reductase; C/EBP, CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein.
- Received June 10, 2008.
- Accepted July 25, 2008.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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