Cytochrome P450-Mediated Bioactivation: Implication for the Liver Injury Induced by Fraxinellone, A Bioactive Constituent from Dictamni Cortex

Fraxinellone, a furanoid, is one of the bioactive and potentially hepatotoxic constituents from Dictamnus dasycarpus Turcz, which is extensively spread throughout Asian countries. This herb was reported to cause liver injury in clinical application. However, the mechanism behind is still not fully understood. This study mainly focused on the hepatotoxicity of fraxinellone and the underlying mechanism. The current study demonstrated that fraxinellone resulted in a significant elevation of serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase in a dose-dependent manner in mice after oral administration. Pretreatment with ketoconazole for three successive days could significantly alleviate the hepatotoxicity of fraxinellone. Considering that fraxinellone has a structural alert of furan ring, it is believed that the hepatotoxicity caused by fraxinellone required cytochrome P450-mediated bioactivation. Bioactivation studies were subsequently carried out in vitro and in vivo. Fraxinellone was metabolized into cis-enedial intermediate, an electrophile that was prone to react with glutathione or N-acetyl-lysine through 1,2- or 1,4-addition to form stable conjugates. Ketoconazole significantly inhibited the formation of the glutathione conjugates (M1 and M2) in microsomal incubation and similar finding was obtained in vivo. Phenotyping study indicated that CYP3A4 was the principal enzyme responsible for the bioactivation of fraxinellone. This study suggested that CYP3A4-mediated bioactivation plays an indispensable role in fraxinellone-induced hepatotoxicity. The work performed herein enables us to better understand the hepatotoxicity of fraxinellone as well as the mechanism behind.