Jaeick Lee

Discovery of Vinyl Sulfones as a Novel Class of Neuroprotective Agents toward Parkinson’s Disease Therapy

Although the etiology of Parkinsons disease (PD) remains elusive, recent studies suggest that oxidative stress contributes to the cascade leading to dopaminergic (DAergic) neurodegeneration. The Nrf2 signaling is the main pathway responsible for cellular defense system against oxidative stress. Nrf2 is a transcription factor that regulates environmental stress response by inducing expression of antioxidant enzyme genes. We have synthesized novel vinyl sulfone derivatives. They exhibited a broad range of activities in inducing HO-1, whose gene expression is under the control of Nrf2. Among them, compound 12g was confirmed to activate Nrf2 and induce expression of the Nrf2-dependent antioxidant enzymes NQO1, GCLC, GLCM, and HO-1, at both mRNA and protein levels in DAergic neuronal cells. This was accompanied by protection of DAergic neurons in both in vitro and MPTP-induced in vivo models of PD. In addition, compound 12g effectively resulted in attenuation of the PD-associated behavioral deficits in the mouse model.

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Aryloxazole Derivatives as Antimitotic and Vascular-Disrupting Agents for Cancer Therapy

A series of aryloxazole, thiazole, and isoxazole derivatives was synthesized as vascular-targeting anticancer agents. Antiproliferative activity and tumor vascular-disrupting activity of all of the synthesized compounds were tested in vitro using various human cancer cell lines and HUVECs (human umbilical vein endothelial cells). Several compounds with an arylpiperazinyl oxazole core showed excellent cytotoxicity and metabolic stability in vitro. Among this series, two representative compounds (6-48 and 6-51) were selected and tested for the evaluation of anticancer effects in vivo using tumor-bearing mice. Compound 6-48 effectively reduced tumor growth (42.3% reduction in size) at the dose of 100 mg/kg. We believe that compound 6-48 will serve as a good lead compound for antimitotic and vascular-disrupting agents; further investigation to improve the in vivo efficacy of this series is underway.

Tentative identification of phase I metabolites of HU-210, a classical synthetic cannabinoid, by LC–MS/MS

(6aR,10aR)-9-(Hydroxymethyl)-6,6-dimethyl-3-(2-methyloctan-2-yl)-6a,7,10,10a-tetrahydrobenzo[c]chromen-1-ol (HU-210) is a synthetic cannabinoid, with a classical cannabinoid structure similar to Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ(9)-THC). In this study, the in vitro metabolism of HU-210 was investigated in human liver microsomes to characterize associated phase I metabolites. HU-210 was incubated with human liver microsomes, and the reaction mixture was analyzed using LC-MS/MS. HU-210 was metabolized in human liver microsomes, yielding about 24 metabolites. These metabolites were structurally characterized on the basis of accurate mass analyses and MS/MS fragmentation patterns. The major metabolic route for HU-210 was oxygenation. Metabolites M1-M7 were identified as mono-oxygenated metabolites; M8-M15, mono-hydroxylated metabolites; M16-M20, di-oxygenated metabolites; and M21-M24, di-hydroxylated metabolites. These results provide evidence for in vivo HU-210 metabolism, and they may be applied to the analysis of HU-210 and its relevant metabolites in biological samples.

Characterization of in vitro metabolites of CP 47,497, a synthetic cannabinoid, in human liver microsomes by LC-MS/MS.

CP 47,497, a potent cannabinoid receptor type 1 agonist, is the main active ingredient in the herbal mixture “Spice” sold in European countries. The illegal use of “Spice” for its psychoactive effects has become a social issue. In this study, the in vitro metabolism of CP 47,497 was investigated in human liver microsomes to characterize the metabolic fate of CP 47,497. CP 47,497 was incubated with human liver microsomes, and the reaction mixture was analyzed using liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry. A total of eight metabolites were detected in human liver microsomes and structurally characterized based on mass spectral data. The main metabolic pathways involved hydroxylations or oxygenations. The identified metabolites were mono‐oxygenated metabolites (M1 and M4), mono‐hydroxylated metabolites (M3, M5, M6, M7, and M8), and a di‐oxygenated metabolite (M2). The detection of these metabolites could confirm the presence of CP 47,497 in biological samples; therefore, collectively, they would be excellent indicators of “Spice” drug abuse.

Determination of tizanidine in human plasma by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

An efficient gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of tizanidine in human plasma. Plasma samples were simply extracted with ethyl acetate at basic pH and the extracts were converted into trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatives for direct separation by GC-MS with selected ion monitoring (SIM). Reaction of tizanidine with N-methyl-N-(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (MSTFA) caused di-trimethylsilylation in the imidazoline moiety and this silylation significantly improved the chromatographic properties of the compound. The determination of tizanidine was accurate and reproducible, with a limit of quantitation of 0.5 ng m(-1) in plasma. The calibration curve for tizanidine was linear (r2 = 0.999) over the concentration range 0.5-10.0 ng ml(-1) in human plasma. The intra- and inter-day precision over the concentration range of tizanidine was well within 6.9% (relative standard deviation) and the accuracy was between 99.2 and 110.5%.

Simple and accurate quantitative analysis of seven prohibited threshold substances in human urine by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry in doping control.

A simple and accurate liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for the quantitative determination of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, methylephedrine, cathine, salbutamol, morphine and epitestosterone in human urine. Urine samples were spiked with internal standard and diluted with acetonitrile. After centrifugation, the supernatants were directly analyzed by LC/MS/MS using the selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. The linearity, intra- and inter-day precision, accuracy, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were evaluated and the method was found to be accurate and reproducible for the quantitation of threshold substances. When the method was applied to the analysis of blind urine samples for the proficiency test, the results were close to the nominal concentrations, within 87.7-106.6% of nominal values, suggesting that the developed methods can be successfully applied to routine doping analyses.

Oxazolopyridines and thiazolopyridines as monoamine oxidase B inhibitors for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease

In Parkinsons disease, the motor impairments are mainly caused by the death of dopaminergic neurons. Among the enzymes which are involved in the biosynthesis and catabolism of dopamine, monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) has been a therapeutic target of Parkinsons disease. However, due to the undesirable adverse effects, development of alternative MAO-B inhibitors with greater optimal therapeutic potential towards Parkinsons disease is urgently required. In this study, we designed and synthesized the oxazolopyridine and thiazolopyridine derivatives, and biologically evaluated their inhibitory activities against MAO-B. Structure-activity relationship study revealed that the piperidino group was the best choice for the R(1) amino substituent to the oxazolopyridine core structure and the activities of the oxazolopyridines with various phenyl rings were between 267.1 and 889.5nM in IC50 values. Interestingly, by replacement of the core structure from oxazolopyrine to thiazolopyridine, the activities were significantly improved and the compound 1n with the thiazolopyridine core structure showed the most potent activity with the IC50 value of 26.5nM. Molecular docking study showed that van der Waals interaction in the human MAO-B active site could explain the enhanced inhibitory activities of thiazolopyridine derivatives.

Enzymatic C-Demethylation of 1-[2-(5-tert-Butyl-[1,3,4] oxadiazole-2-carbonyl)-4-fluoro-pyrrolidin-1-yl]-2-(2-hydroxy-1,1-dimethyl-ethylamino)-ethanone (LC15-0133) in Rat Liver Microsomes

The in vitro metabolism of 1-[2-(5-tert-butyl-[1,3,4] oxadiazole-2-carbonyl)-4-fluoro-pyrrolidin-1-yl]-2-(2-hydroxy-1,1-dimethyl-ethylamino)-ethanone (LC15-0133), a novel dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor, was investigated using a hepatic microsomal system. The structures of the metabolites were characterized using mass spectral analysis and by comparison with synthetic references. The in vitro incubation of LC15-0133 with rat liver microsomes resulted in the formation of six metabolites, with the major metabolic reactions being hydroxylation and carbonyl reduction. Of the metabolites, a C-demethylated metabolite (M4) was identified, but was only detected in rat liver microsomes; experimental evidence revealed that the C-demethylated metabolite was generated by nonenzymatic decarboxylation of the carboxyl metabolite (M1). Nonenzymatic decarboxylation is postulated to occur due to the resonance stabilization by the oxadiazole ring attached to the tert-butyl moiety.

Simultaneous analysis of 210 prohibited substances in human urine by ultrafast liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry in doping control

RATIONALE Doping analysis is a two-step process consisting of a screening step for prohibited substances and a confirmation step to verify the presence of specific substances found during the screening. The entire process must be performed within a limited time period, but traditional screening procedures commonly employ separate analytical methods for each class of prohibited substances being screened and thus require a great deal of human resources and instrumentation. A single simple and rapid multiresidue analytical method that could accommodate multiple classes of prohibited substances would be extraordinarily useful in doping analyses. METHODS Urine samples were extracted via two consecutive liquid-liquid extractions at different pH values following enzymatic hydrolysis. Analyses were performed by ultrafast liquid chromatography/triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry with polarity switching and time-dependent selected reaction monitoring. RESULTS We developed a rapid multiresidue screening and confirmation method for efficient high-throughput doping analyses. The present method was validated with regard to the limits of detection (0.01-100.0 ng/mL for screening analyses and 0.2-500.0 ng/mL for confirmation assays), matrix effects (48.9-118.9%), recovery (20.6-119.7%) and intra- (0.6-17.6%) and inter-day (4.0-20.0%) precision. CONCLUSIONS A multiresidue analytical method was developed and validated for screening and confirming the presence of performance-enhancing drugs. A total of 210 substances from diverse classes of prohibited substances were successfully identified with an analytical run time of 10 min.

Rapid quantitative determination of L-FMAU-TP from human peripheral-blood mononuclear cells of hepatitis B virus-infected patients treated with L-FMAU by ion-pairing, reverse-phase, liquid chromatography/electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

The purpose of this study was to develop an analytical method for the determination of 2′-fluoro-5-methyl-β-l-arabinofuranosyl uracil triphosphate (L-FMAU-TP) in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and its application in the determination of cellular levels of L-FMAU-TP in PBMCs isolated from patients treated with 2′-fluoro-5-methyl-β-l-arabinofuranosyl uracil (L-FMAU). An ion-pairing liquid chromatography (IPC) method, coupled with negative ion electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS), was developed for the accurate and repeatable detection of L-FMAU-TP, with a limit of detection of 1.6 pmol/106 cells. The calibration curve for L-FMAU-TP was linear over the concentration range 1.6 to 80 pmol/106 cells. The intra- and inter-day precision was lower than 11.2%, and the accuracy was between 97.1 and 106.9%. When applied to the determination of L-FMAU-TP in PBMCs isolated from HBV-infected patients undergoing L-FMAU treatment, the levels reached a steady state concentration 4 weeks after daily single oral administration of 20 mg L-FMAU, and these levels were maintained for up to 12 weeks, but then decreased 12 weeks after drug cessation. The terminal half-life of L-FMAU-TP in PBMCs after drug cessation was estimated to be 15.6 days.