TY - JOUR T1 - Decreased Susceptibility of the Cytochrome P450 2B6 Variant K262R to Inhibition by Several Clinically Important Drugs JF - Drug Metabolism and Disposition JO - Drug Metab Dispos SP - 644 LP - 650 DO - 10.1124/dmd.108.023655 VL - 37 IS - 3 AU - Jyothi C. Talakad AU - Santosh Kumar AU - James R. Halpert Y1 - 2009/03/01 UR - http://dmd.aspetjournals.org/content/37/3/644.abstract N2 - Cytochrome P450 (P450) 2B6 metabolizes a number of clinically relevant drugs and is one of the most highly polymorphic human P450 enzymes, with the Lys262→Arg substitution being especially common in several genetic variants. Therefore, K262R (2B6*4) was created in the CYP2B6dH background (N-terminal-modified and C-terminal His-tagged) and expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant CYP2B6dH and K262R were purified and studied to investigate the effect of the Lys262→Arg substitution with six of the most potent drug inhibitors of CYP2B6, namely, clopidogrel, clotrimazole, itraconazole, raloxifene, sertraline, and ticlopidine. K262R showed a >3-fold increase in the Ki values with clopidogrel, itraconazole, and raloxifene and ∼6-fold increase in Ki with sertraline compared with CYP2B6dH. Likewise, K262R showed 2-, 4-, and >20-fold higher Ks values than CYP2B6dH with clopidogrel, sertraline, and itraconazole, respectively. In contrast, when tested with several known type II inhibitors of CYP2B enzymes, K262R showed a 10-fold lower IC50 with 4-(phenyl)pyridine and ∼2-fold lower IC50 with 4-(4-nitrobenzyl)pyridine or 1-(4-phenyl)benzylimidazole than CYP2B6dH. Subsequent analysis predicted possible in vivo drug-drug interactions between the CYP2B6 substrate efavirenz and drug inhibitors clopidogrel, clotrimazole, itraconazole, sertraline, and ticlopidine. Furthermore, Q172H/K262R (2B6*6), which is the most common genetic variant of CYP2B6 harboring K262R, was created in CYP2B6dH, expressed, purified, and characterized for inhibition. Q172H/K262R showed a >6-fold increase in Ki with sertraline and clopidogrel compared with CYP2B6dH. The results suggest that individuals, especially homozygotes, with the 2B6*4 or 2B6*6 allele might be less susceptible to drug interactions resulting from P450 inhibition. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics ER -