Humanized UGT2 and CYP3A transchromosomic rats for improved prediction of human drug metabolism.

Although "genomically" humanized animals are invaluable tools for generating human disease models as well as for biomedical research, their development has been mainly restricted to mice via established transgenic-based and embryonic stem cell-based technologies. Since rats are widely used for studying human disease and for drug efficacy and toxicity testing, humanized rat models would be preferred over mice for several applications. However, the development of sophisticated humanized rat models has been hampered by the difficulty of complex genetic manipulations in rats. Additionally, several genes and gene clusters, which are megabase range in size, were difficult to introduce into rats with conventional technologies. As a proof of concept, we herein report the generation of genomically humanized rats expressing key human drug-metabolizing enzymes in the absence of their orthologous rat counterparts via the combination of chromosome transfer using mouse artificial chromosome (MAC) and genome editing technologies. About 1.5 Mb and 700 kb of the entire UDP glucuronosyltransferase family 2 and cytochrome P450 family 3 subfamily A genomic regions, respectively, were successfully introduced via the MACs into rats. The transchromosomic rats were combined with rats carrying deletions of the endogenous orthologous genes, achieved by genome editing. In the "transchromosomic humanized" rat strains, the gene expression, pharmacokinetics, and metabolism observed in humans were well reproduced. Thus, the combination of chromosome transfer and genome editing technologies can be used to generate fully humanized rats for improved prediction of the pharmacokinetics and drug-drug interactions in humans, and for basic research, drug discovery, and development.

CYP3A4 Induction in the Liver and Intestine of Pregnane X Receptor/CYP3A-Humanized Mice: Approaches by Mass Spectrometry Imaging and Portal Blood Analysis.

Induction of cytochrome P450 enzyme 3A (CYP3A) in response to pregnane X receptor (PXR) activators shows species-specific differences. To study the induction of human CYP3A in response to human PXR activators, we generated a double-humanized mouse model of PXR and CYP3A. CYP3A-humanized mice generated by using a mouse artificial chromosome (MAC) vector containing the entire genomic human CYP3A locus (hCYP3A-MAC mouse line) were bred with PXR-humanized mice in which the ligand-binding domain of mouse PXR was replaced with that of human PXR, resulting in double-humanized mice (hCYP3A-MAC/hPXR mouse line). Oral administration of the human PXR activator rifampicin increased hepatic expression of CYP3A4 mRNA and triazolam (TRZ) 1'- and 4-hydroxylation activities, CYP3A probe activities, in the liver and intestine microsomes of hCYP3A-MAC/hPXR mice. The plasma concentration of TRZ after oral dosing was significantly decreased by rifampicin treatment in hCYP3A-MAC/hPXR mice but not in hCYP3A-MAC mice. In addition, mass spectrometry imaging analysis showed that rifampicin treatment increased the formation of hydroxy TRZ in the intestine of hCYP3A-MAC/hPXR mice after oral dosing of TRZ. The plasma concentration of 1'- and 4-hydroxy TRZ in portal blood was also increased by rifampicin treatment in hCYP3A-MAC/hPXR mice. These results suggest that the hCYP3A-MAC/hPXR mouse line may be a useful model to predict human PXR-dependent induction of metabolism of CYP3A4 substrates in the liver and intestine. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: We generated a double-humanized mouse line for CYP3A and PXR. Briefly, CYP3A-humanized mice generated by using a mouse artificial chromosome vector containing the entire genomic human CYP3A locus were bred with PXR-humanized mice in which the ligand-binding domain of mouse PXR was replaced with that of human PXR. Expression of CYP3A4 and metabolism of triazolam, a typical CYP3A substrate, in the liver of CYP3A/PXR-humanized mice were enhanced in response to rifampicin, a typical human PXR activator. Enhancement of triazolam metabolism in the intestine of CYP3A/PXR-humanized mice was firstly shown by combination of mass spectrometry imaging of sliced intestine and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry analysis of metabolite concentration in portal blood after oral dosing of triazolam.

Human small intestinal epithelial cells differentiated from adult intestinal stem cells as a novel system for predicting oral drug absorption in humans.

Adult intestinal stem cells (ISCs) possess both a long-term proliferation ability and differentiation capability into enterocytes. As a novel in vitro system for the evaluation of drug absorption, we characterized a human small intestinal epithelial cell (HIEC) monolayer that differentiated from adult ISCs. Continuous proliferation/differentiation from ISCs consistently conferred the capability of maturation of enterocytes to HIECs over 25 passages. The morphologically matured HIEC monolayer consisted of polarized columnar epithelia with dense microvilli, tight junctions, and desmosomes 8 days after seeding onto culture inserts. Transepithelial electrical resistance across the monolayer was 9-fold lower in HIECs (98.9 Ω × cm(2)) than in Caco-2 cells (900 Ω × cm(2)), which indicated that the looseness of the tight junctions in the HIEC monolayer was similar to that in the human small intestine (approximately 40 Ω × cm(2)). No significant differences were observed in the overall gene expression patterns of the major drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters between the HIEC and Caco-2 cell monolayers. Furthermore, the functions of P-glycoprotein and breast cancer resistance protein in the HIEC monolayer were confirmed by the vectorial transport of marker substrates and their disappearance in the presence of specific inhibitors. The apparent drug permeability values of paracellularly transported compounds (fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran 4000, atenolol, and terbutaline) and nucleoside transporter substrates (didanosine, ribavirin, and doxifluridine) in the HIEC monolayer were markedly higher than those of Caco-2 cells, whereas transcellularly transported drugs (pindolol and midazolam) were equally well permeated. In conclusion, the HIEC monolayer can serve as a novel and superior alternative to the conventional Caco-2 cell monolayer for predicting oral absorption in humans.

Development of Caco-2 cells co-expressing CYP3A4 and NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase using a human artificial chromosome for the prediction of intestinal extraction ratio of CYP3A4 substrates.

The Caco-2 cells co-expressing cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4 and NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR) were developed using a human artificial chromosome (HAC) vector. The CYP3A4 and CPR genes were cloned into the HAC vector in CHO cells using the Cre-loxP system, and the microcell-mediated chromosome transfer technique was used to transfer the CYP3A4-CPR-HAC vector to Caco-2 cells. After seeding onto semipermeable culture inserts, the CYP3A4-CPR-HAC/Caco-2 cells were found to form tight monolayers, similar to the parental cells, as demonstrated by the high transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) value and comparable permeability of non-CYP3A4 substrates between parent and CYP3A4-CPR-HAC/Caco-2 cell monolayers. The metabolic activity of CYP3A4 (midazolam 1'-hydroxylase activity) in the CYP3A4-CPR-HAC/Caco-2 cells was constant from 22 to 35 passages, indicating that HAC vectors conferred sufficient and sustained CYP3A4 activity to CYP3A4-CPR-HAC/Caco-2 cells. The strong relationship between the metabolic extraction ratios (ER) obtained from the CYP3A4-CPR-HAC/Caco-2 cells and calculated intestinal extraction ratios in humans (Eg) from reported intestinal availability (Fg) was found for 17 substrates of CYP3A4 (r2 = 0.84). The present study suggests that the CYP3A4-CPR-HAC/Caco-2 cell monolayer can serve as an in vitro tool that facilitates the prediction of intestinal extraction ratio (or availability) in humans.

Application of a Human Intestinal Epithelial Cell Monolayer to the Prediction of Oral Drug Absorption in Humans as a Superior Alternative to the Caco-2 Cell Monolayer.

A human small intestinal epithelial cell (HIEC) monolayer was recently established in our laboratories as a novel system to evaluate the Papp (apparent permeability coefficient) of compounds during their absorption in humans. An effusion-based analysis using polyethylene glycol oligomers with molecular weights ranging from 194-898 indicated that HIEC and Caco-2 cell monolayers both had paracellular pores with 2 distinct radiuses (∼ 5 and 9-14 Å), whereas the porosity of large pores was 11-fold higher in the HIEC monolayer (44 × 10(-8)) than in the Caco-2 cells (4 × 10(-8)). A comparison between the fraction-absorbed (Fa) values observed in humans and those predicted from Papp values in both monolayers indicated that the HIEC monolayer had markedly higher precision to predict Fa values with root mean square error of 9.40 than the Caco-2 cells (root mean square error = 16.90) for 10 paracellularly absorbed compounds. Furthermore, the accuracy of the HIEC monolayer to classify the absorption of 23 test drugs with diverse absorption properties, including different pathways in the presence or absence of susceptibility to efflux transporters, was higher than that of the Caco-2 cell monolayer. In conclusion, the HIEC monolayer exhibited advantages over Caco-2 cells in the ranking and prediction of absorption of compounds in humans.

Utility of cryopreserved hepatocytes suspended in serum to predict hepatic clearance in dogs and monkeys.

An in vitro-in vivo correlation analysis between observed and predicted metabolic clearance in multiple preclinical species including dogs and monkeys constitutes an integral part of prediction for the pharmacokinetics in humans by using liver-derived in vitro preparations. Empirical values of the scaling factor for the extrapolation of metabolic (intrinsic) clearance in the in vitro preparation to that for whole liver were calculated for each preparation of 8 and 5 cryopreserved dog and monkey hepatocytes, respectively, by optimizing the objective function of average fold error between predicted and observed metabolic (intrinsic) clearance for eight and 11 standard compounds for dogs and monkeys, respectively. Thus obtained values of the scaling factor ranged from 5.46 × 10(9) to 19.9 × 10(9) cells/kg body weight with an average of 10.3 × 10(9) cells/kg body weight in dogs, and the value ranged from 2.36 × 10(9) to 4.21 × 10(9) cells/kg body weight with an average of 3.17 × 10(9) cells/kg body weight in monkeys, which were both consistent with biologically calculated values in corresponding species. These results demonstrated the utility of commercially available cryopreserved preparations of dog and monkey hepatocytes for the in vitro-in vivo correlation analyses with the aid of empirically or biologically obtained scaling factors at the early development stage of new drug candidates.