Bortezomib, carfilzomib and ixazomib do not mediate relevant transporter-based drug-drug interactions.

In order to optimize the clinical application of an increasing number of proteasome inhibitors, investigations into the differences between their respective pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic profiles, including their ability to act as a perpetrator in drug-drug interactions, are warranted. Therefore, in the present in vitro study, it was investigated whether bortezomib, carfilzomib and ixazomib are able to alter the expression, and/or the activity, of specific drug transporters generally relevant for pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions. Through induction experiments, the current study demonstrated that the aforementioned three proteasome inhibitors do not induce mRNA expression of the transporter genes ATP binding cassette (ABC)B1, C1, C2 and G2 in the LS180 cell line, which was used as a model for systemic induction. By contrast, in certain myeloma cell lines, ixazomib provoked minor alterations in individual transporter gene expression. None of the proteasome inhibitors tested relevantly inhibited drug transporters within the range of physiological plasma concentrations. Taken together, transporter-based drug-drug interactions are unlikely to be a primary concern in the clinical application of the tested compounds.

Cellular effect and efficacy of carfilzomib depends on cellular net concentration gradient.

PURPOSE: The cellular interrelation between intracellular concentrations of unbound carfilzomib, a second-generation proteasome inhibitor, and subsequent proteasome inhibition and effect on cell viability are unknown and were evaluated for two different exposure regimens: A high dose bolus regime of 500 nM for 1 h followed by 47 h in drug-free media vs. 48-h continuous exposure to 10 nM. METHODS: Eight multiple myeloma cell lines were exposed to either one of the two exposure regimens. We quantified the intracellular unbound carfilzomib fraction up to 48 h with a new ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC/MS/MS) method. Intracellular concentrations were compared to simultaneously determined cell viability (AlamarBlue® assay) and proteasomal subunit activity (ProGlo™ assay). RESULTS: Within the first 10 min, the proportional intracellular enrichment of unbound carfilzomib was higher (313 nM; 62.6%) for the exposure to 500 nM compared to 10 nM (1.93 nM; 19.3%). However, after 1 h, an intracellular/extracellular concentration equilibrium was reached with both settings. At low exposure concentrations, drug removal after 1 h diminished carfilzomib efficacy. Moreover, proteasomal activity recovered when exposed to 10 nM for 48 h. However, when exposure concentration was high (500 nM) proteasome inhibition was complete and sustained even with drug removal after 1 h. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that the carfilzomib concentration gradient determines cellular uptake kinetics. The uptake kinetics in turn affects binding, saturation, and activity of the proteasome. Together, these data underscore the importance of steep concentrations for the in vitro efficacy of carfilzomib.

ELM 2016--data update and new functionality of the eukaryotic linear motif resource.

The Eukaryotic Linear Motif (ELM) resource (http://elm.eu.org) is a manually curated database of short linear motifs (SLiMs). In this update, we present the latest additions to this resource, along with more improvements to the web interface. ELM 2016 contains more than 240 different motif classes with over 2700 experimentally validated instances, manually curated from more than 2400 scientific publications. In addition, more data have been made available as individually searchable pages and are downloadable in various formats.