Specifity and sensitivity of the inhibition of drug metabolism following inhalation of carbon disulphide-air mixtures.

A single 8-h exposure of adult female Wistar rats to 20 ppm carbon disulphide (CS2), the threshold limit value (TLV) in several countries, was sufficient to cause inhibition of the following drug-metabolizing reactions: formation of trichloroethanol and trichloroacetic acid from trichloroethylene (aliphatic C-hydroxylation), formation of 4-hydroxyantipyrine from antipyrine (quasi-aromatic C-hydroxylation), formation of acetaminophenol from acetanilid (aromatic C-hydroxylation) and phenacetin (oxidative odealkylation), respectively, and formation of 4-aminoantipyrine from aminopyrine (oxidative N-demethylation). The behaviour of these effects was dependent on the dose of CS2 administered in that the inhibitory process was enhanced when increasing the concentration to (50), 100, 200, and 400 ppm. The respective changes could be demonstrated by a short-duration (6-h) reduction in the urinary excretion of the metabolites. In the case of trichloroethylene the limitation in metabolite formation persisted for as long as 36 h due to the varying rate of formation of trichloroethanol and trichloroacetic acid. This deficiency in excretion was compensated in part during the subsequent elimination phase (up to 24 and 36 h, respectively), an observation which suggests the rapid reversibility of the alteration. As shown by the respective prolongation of the hexobarbital sleeping time in the rat, the side-chain oxidation of hexobarbital to ketohexobarbital was increasingly inhibited by rising concentrations of CS2 in the range of 20 to 400 ppm/8 h. On the basis of the present results it is concluded that CS2 also inhibits various oxygenases of the microsomal enzyme system. In adult female NMRI mice a significant inhibition of the microsomal procaine-hydrolyzing esterase of the liver was observed only after 400 ppm/8 h; however, this limitation did not affect the LD50 of procaine-HCl, particularly as the corresponding serum esterase activity also remained uninfluenced. The aromatic N-acetylation of sulphisomidine and the quasi-aromatic N-acetylation of 4-aminoantipyrine in rats failed to be significantly reduced by CS2 even after 400 ppm/8 h, nor did the same dose of CS2 affect the glucuronidation of 4-hydroxyantipyrine in the same animal species. It is concluded from the above results that the specificity and sensitivity of the inhibition of drug metabolism observed in small laboratory animals is probably similar to that prevailing in man. This assumption has already been substantiated for the oxidative N-demethylation of aminopyrine.