Gene Expression and Protein Abundance of Hepatic Drug Metabolizing Enzymes in Liver Pathology

• Main Authors: Marek Drozdzik, Joanna Lapczuk-Romanska, Christoph Wenzel, Sylwia Szelag-Pieniek, Mariola Post, Łukasz Skalski, Mateusz Kurzawski, Stefan Oswald
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
• Series: Pharmaceutics
• Subjects: hepatic pathology; liver; drug metabolizing enzymes
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4923/13/9/1334

Hepatic drug metabolizing enzymes (DMEs) markedly affect drug pharmacokinetics. Because liver diseases may alter enzymatic function and in turn drug handling and clinical efficacy, we investigated DMEs expression in dependence on liver pathology and liver failure state. In 5 liver pathologies (hepatitis C, alcoholic liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cholangitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis) and for the first time stratified according to the Child–Pugh score, 10 CYPs (CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP2B6, CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, CYP2E1, CYP3A4 and CYP3A5) and 4 UGTs (UGT1A1, UGT1A3, UGT2B7 and UGT2B) enzymes were quantified for protein abundance (LC-MS/MS) and gene expression (qRT-PCR). CYP2E1 was the most vulnerable enzyme, and its protein levels were significantly reduced just in Child–Pugh class A livers. The protein abundance of CYP1A1, CYP2B6, CYP2C19, CYP2D6 as well as UGT1A1, UGT1A3 and UGT2B15 was relatively stable in the course of progression of liver function deterioration. Alcoholic liver disease and primary biliary cholangitis were involved in the most prominent changes in the protein abundances, with downregulation of 6 (CYP1A2, CYP2C8, CYP2D6, CYP2E1, CYP3A4, UGT2B7) and 5 (CYP1A1, CYP2B6, CYP2C8, CYP2E1, CYP3A4) significantly downregulated enzymes, respectively. The results of the study demonstrate that DMEs protein abundance is affected both by the type of liver pathology as well as functional state of the organ.