Characterization of primary human hepatocytes, HepG2 cells, and HepaRG cells at the mRNA level and CYP activity in response to inducers and their predictivity for the detection of human hepatotoxins

In the pharmaceutical industry, improving the early detection of drug-induced hepatotoxicity is essential as it is one of the most important reasons for attrition of candidate drugs during the later stages of drug development. The first objective of this study was to better characterize different cellular models (i.e., HepG2, HepaRG cells, and fresh primary human hepatocytes) at the gene expression level and analyze their metabolic cytochrome P450 capabilities. The cellular models were exposed to three different CYP450 inducers; beta-naphthoflavone (BNF), phenobarbital (PB), and rifampicin (RIF). HepG2 cells responded very weakly to the different inducers at the gene expression level, and this translated generally into low CYP450 activities in the induced cells compared with the control cells. On the contrary, HepaRG cells and the three human donors were inducible after exposure to BNF, PB, and RIF according to gene expression responses and CYP450 activities. Consequently, HepaRG cells could be used in screening as a substitute and/or in complement to primary hepatocytes for CYP induction studies. The second objective was to investigate the predictivity of the different cellular models to detect hepatotoxins (16 hepatotoxic and 5 nonhepatotoxic compounds). Specificity was 100% with the different cellular models tested. Cryopreserved human hepatocytes gave the highest sensitivity, ranging from 31% to 44% (depending on the donor), followed by lower sensitivity (13%) for HepaRG and HepG2 cells (6.3%). Overall, none of the models under study gave desirable sensitivities (80–100%). Consequently, a high metabolic capacity and CYP inducibility in cell lines does not necessarily correlate with a high sensitivity for the detection of hepatotoxic drugs. Further investigations are necessary to compare different cellular models and determine those that are best suited for the detection of hepatotoxic compounds

Elucidating the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ Nature of PXR: The Case for Discovering Antagonists or Allosteric Antagonists

The pregnane X receptor belongs to the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily and is involved in the transcriptional control of numerous genes. It was originally thought that it was a xenobiotic sensor controlling detoxification pathways. Recent studies have shown an increasingly important role in inflammation and cancer, supporting its function in abrogating tissue damage. PXR orthologs and PXR-like pathways have been identified in several non-mammalian species which corroborate a conserved role for PXR in cellular detoxification. In summary, PXR has a multiplicity of roles in vivo and is being revealed as behaving like a “Jekyll and Hyde” nuclear hormone receptor. The importance of this review is to elucidate the need for discovery of antagonists of PXR to further probe its biology and therapeutic applications. Although several PXR agonists are already reported, virtually nothing is known about PXR antagonists. Here, we propose the development of PXR antagonists through chemical, genetic and molecular modeling approaches. Based on this review it will be clear that antagonists of PXR and PXR-like pathways will have widespread utility in PXR biology and therapeutics