Fluorescence-based liver microsomal assay for screening of pharmaceutical reactive metabolites using a glutathione conjugated 96-well plate.

The purpose of our paper is to develop and validate a fluorescence-based mouse liver microsomal (MLM) assay in screening pharmaceutical reactive metabolites (RMs) using a glutathione (GSH)-conjugated 96-well plate. Poly(2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate) (pHEMA) polymeric membrane was coated on 96-well plates to provide a functional support for GSH conjugation. Oxidized GSH (GSSG) was conjugated on a cyanogen bromide (CNBr)-activated pHEMA surface. The conjugated GSH was regenerated after the reduction of GSSG using d,l-dithiothreitol (DTT). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Ellman's, and fluorescence assays were applied to validate the chemistry and optimize the processes of GSH conjugation. The performance of the 96-well assay was further cross-validated using N-acetyl-p-benzo-quinone imine (NAPQI), a RM of acetaminophen (APAP), and the in vitro MLM assay of APAP. Finally, the developed method was applied to screen a batch of marketed drugs and chemicals on the formation of RMs. Our results indicated that optimum conditions were obtained for pHEMA loading, CNBr activation of pHEMA, and GSSG coupling and reduction. The detection limit of the assay for NAPQI was 500 nM with good specificity. In vitro MLM assay of APAP demonstrated a positive trapping index (TI) of 19.3%. The subsequent RM screening of a series of marketed drugs and chemical compounds resulted in a range of TI values (1.0-25.7%) that corroborated with their capacity in generating RMs. The differences of TI values are statistically significant between the compounds which are known to produce RMs and those that do not generate reactive intermediates. In conclusion, we successfully developed a fluorescence-based GSH-conjugated 96-well plate platform for the screening of RMs using MLM.