Trimethadione metabolism by human liver cytochrome P450: evidence for the involvement of CYP2E1

1. Caucasian liver samples were used in this study. N-demethylation of trimethadione (TMO) to dimethadione (DMO) was monitored in the presence of chemical inhibitors of CYPs, such as fluconazole, quinidine, dimethyl-nitrosamine, acetaminophen, phenacetin, chlorzoxazone and mephenytoin. Trimethadione N-demethylation was selectively inhibited by dimethylnitrosamine and chlorzoxazone (> 50%) and weakly inhibited by tolbutamide (12%) and fluconazole (22%), whereas other inhibitors showed no effect. This result suggested that TMO metabolism to DMO is mainly mediated by CYP2E1 and marginally by CYP2C and CYP3A4. 2. Fifteen human livers were screened and interindividual variability of TMO N-demethylation activity was 3-fold. Chlorzoxazone 6-hydroxylation activity was also measured and both activities were significantly correlated (r=0.735, p < 0.01). 3. DMO production by human cDNA expressed CYP enzymes was observed mainly for CYP2E1 (10.8 nmol/tube), marginally for CYP2C8 (0.22 nmol tube) and not detectable for other CYP enzymes. 4. These results indicate that TMO metabolism is primarily catalysed by CYP2E1 and that trimethadione would be a suitable selective probe drug for the estimation of human CYP2E1 activity in vivo.