Human Cytochrome P450 Kinetic Studies on Six N-2-methoxybenzyl (NBOMe)-derived New Psychoactive Substances Using the Substrate Depletion Approach

A huge number of new chemical derivatives of known drugs of abuse, so-called new psychoactive substances (NPS), are sold and consumed without prior preclinical and clinical testing. For assessing the elimination behaviors, determination of the kinetic constants K and V of the cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms involved in the hepatic metabolism of NPS could help to predict their contributions to hepatic clearance, drug-drug interactions and polymorphisms. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to determine the K and V values for CYP isoforms using the substrate depletion approach for the six N-2-methoxybenzyl (NBOMe)-derived NPS 25B-NBOMe, 25C-NBOMe, 25I-NBOMe, 3,4-DMA-NBOMe, 4-EA-NBOMe, and 4-MMA-NBOMe. Furthermore, the contributions of each CYP isozyme to the hepatic net clearance were elucidated using the relative activity factor approach. Several CYPs including CYP1A2, CYP2B6, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4 were identified to be involved in the metabolism of the investigated compounds. The determined K values ranged from 0.010 μM (CYP2D6, 4-MMA-NBOMe) to 13 μM (CYP2B6, 4-EA-NBOMe). All NBOMes were good substrates of CYP2C19 and CYP2D6 resulting in very low K values in the nanomolar range. The main contributors to hepatic net clearance were CYP2D6 for 25B-NBOMe (69%), 25C-NBOMe (83%), 25I-NBOMe (61%), 3,4-DMA-NBOMe (89%) as well as for 4-EA-NBOMe (62%) and CYP2C19 for 4-MMA-NBOMe (64%). As more than one isoform was involved in the particular steps, the risk of harm associated with drug-drug interactions might be considered low. However, in cases where substances with high contributions from polymorphically expressed CYP2C19 and CYP2D6 are encountered, inter-individual variations in metabolism and excretion cannot be excluded.