Docetaxel, a novel member of the taxoid family, has shown greater potency than paclitaxel in the treatment of advanced breast cancer and certain other solid tumors. The promising clinical activity of docetaxel has also promoted considerable interest in combining this drug with other antitumor agents. In this study, we assessed the cytotoxic interaction between docetaxel and doxorubicin administered at various schedules to human breast and ovarian cancer cells. Through a series of in vitro assays including DNA fragmentation analyses, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assays, and flow cytometric analyses, we found that the antagonistic interaction occurred when tumor cells were exposed to the two drugs simultaneously or exposed to doxorubicin before docetaxel. However, no antagonism was observed when docetaxel was added before doxorubicin. Further analyses demonstrated that doxorubicin could interfere with the cytotoxic effect of docetaxel on both mitotic arrest and apoptotic cell death. In addition, biochemical examinations revealed that docetaxel could induce phosphorylation of both bcl-2 and c-raf-1, but these changes were inhibited when tumor cells were pretreated or simultaneously treated with doxorubicin. These results indicate that the interaction between docetaxel and doxorubicin is highly schedule dependent. Exposure of tumor cells to doxorubicin before docetaxel could result in pronounced antagonism. The optimal schedule for this combination might be sequential exposure to docetaxel followed by doxorubicin.

AIM: To establish a high P-glycoprotein (P-gp) expressing cell line as a model for studying drug absorption and distribution, and to explore the preliminary application of this screening model. METHODS: A full-length MDR1 cDNA fragment in plasmid pMDRA1 was first subcloned into plasmid pET28a(+), then MDR1 cDNA was cut from the recombinant plasmid with double-digestion and ligated into the mammalian expression vector pcDNA3.1(+). The recombinant plasmid pcDNA3.1 (+)/MDR1 was transfected into breast cancer cell line Bcap37 using the Superfect transfection reagent. Several stably transfected clones were obtained after selection with G418. Real-time fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot methods were used to detect the expression of P-gp, and the cellular location of the expressed protein was determined by immunohistochemical staining. Drug sensitivity assay was used to evaluate the biological function of expressed P-gp. Concentration of quercetin in cells was determined by highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC). RESULTS: The recombinant plasmid was confirmed to be inserted in the correct orientation by restrictive enzyme digestion and DNA sequencing. Real-time fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR showed a higher level of P-gp mRNA in transfected cells compared to that in the control cells, and the Western blot result also indicated that P-gp expression in transfected cells was higher than that in control cells. The immunohistochemical staining showed that the expressed P-gp was localized on cell membranes. Drug sensitivity assay showed that the IC50 for adriamycin and colchicine of the transfected cells was higher than that of the control cells. The concentration of quercetin in model cells was lower than that in control cells by HPLC. After P-gp inhibitor verapamil was administered, the concentration of quercetin in model cells was increased. CONCLUSION: A high P-gp expressing cell line can be established, which could provide a suitable in vitro model system for studying drug intestinal absorption mechanism, predicting the drug permeability characteristics and screening new multi-drug resistance reversing agents. With this model, quercetin can be found to be transported by P-gp, and it is a P-gp substrate.

An enantioselective assay for S-(-)-and R-(+)-propranolol in transgenic Chinese hamster CHL cell lines, expressing human cytochrome P450 (CYP), was developed. The method involves extraction of propranolol from the S9 incubates, using S-(+)-propafenone as internal standard, chiral derivatization with 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-h-D-glucopranosyl isothiocyanate and quantitation by reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography system with UV detection (k=220nm). A baseline separation of propranolol enantiomers was achieved on a 5-Am reverse-phase ODS column, with a mixture of methanol/water/glacial acetic acid (67:33:0.05, v/v) as mobile phase. The assay is linear from 5 to 500 AM for each enantiomer. The analytical method affords average recoveries of 99.2% and 98.8% for S-(-)-and R-(+)-propranolol, respectively. The limit of quantitation for the method is 5 AM for both S-(-)-and R-(+)-propranolol. The reproducibility of the assay is satisfactory (RSD<10%). The method allowed study of the depletion of S-(-)-and R-(+)-propranolol in transgenic Chinese hamster CHL cell lines expressing CYP3A4, CYP2C18 and CYP2C9.

Several important chiral phenethylamine agents such as mexiletine, fenfluramine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and N-n-propylamphetamine show stereoselective disposition in humans and large differences in therapeutic relevance and toxicity. To analyze the enantiomers of chiral amine drugs, stereoselective methods were developed to separate those enantiomers on an achiral capillary gas chromatography by pre-column chiral derivatization with S-(-)-N-(fluoroacyl)-prolyl chloride. The stereoselectivity and sensitivity can be improved by chiral derivatization. The methods established offer enantioselective, simple, flexible and economic approaches for the analysis of chiral amine drug enantiomers in biological fluids. The methods have been used to determine S-(+)-methamphetamine in human forensic samples and to analyze enantiomers of amphetamine and fenfluramine in rat liver microsomes.

A sensitive, simple and accurate method was developed for determination of quercetin and kaempferol in human urine by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography. The urine samples were analyzed on C18 column. Quercetin and kaempferol were analyzed simultaneously with good separation. UV detector was set at 380nm. There was a linear relationship between chromatographic area of analytes and concentration of analytes over the concentration range 1.638-81.90 and 1.872-93.60ng/ml for quercetin and kaempferol, respectively. The recovery of the assay was 99.79