Effect of clozapine on neutrophil kinetics in rabbits.

Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug effective in the treatment of refractory schizophrenia; however, its use is limited due to its propensity to cause agranulocytosis in some patients. Little is known about the mechanism of idiosyncratic drug-induced agranulocytosis, in part because of the lack of a valid animal model. Clozapine is oxidized by activated human neutrophils and bone marrow cells to a reactive nitrenium ion by the myeloperoxidase-hydrogen peroxide system of neutrophils.

Introduction to early in vitro identification of metabolites of new chemical entities in drug discovery and development.

The introduction of combinatorial chemistry and robotics for high throughput screening has changed the way drugs are discovered today compared with 10-15 years ago when fewer compounds were tested in animal or organ models. The introduction of new analytical techniques, especially liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) has made it possible to characterize the chemical properties, permeability, metabolic stability and metabolic fate of a large number of screening hits for further development in a funnel-like manner. The purpose of this contribution is to discuss principles and recent strategies for metabolite identification and to give an introduction to biotransformation studies.

Hemoglobin adduct levels in rat and mouse treated with 1,2:3,4-diepoxybutane.

For cancer risk assessment of 1,3-butadiene from rodent cancer test data, the in vivo doses of formed 1,2:3,4-diepoxybutane (DEB) should be known. In vivo doses of DEB were measured through a specific reaction product with hemoglobin (Hb), a ring-closed adduct, N,N-(2,3-dihydroxy-1,4-butadiyl)valine (Pyr-Val), to N-terminal valines. An analytical method based on tryptic digestion of Hb and quantification of Pyr-modified heptapeptides by LC-MS/MS has been further developed and applied in vivo to DEB-treated rats.

Attomole detection of in vivo protein targets of benzene in mice: evidence for a highly reactive metabolite.

Modified proteins were detected in liver and bone marrow of mice following treatment with [(14)C]benzene. Stained sections were excised from one-dimensional and two-dimensional gels and converted to graphite to enable (14)C/(13)C ratios to be measured by accelerator mass spectrometry. Protein adducts of benzene or its metabolites were indicated by elevated levels of (14)C.