High-Throughput Evaluation Method for Drug Association with Pregnane X Receptor (PXR) Using Differential Scanning Fluorometry

The pregnane xenobiotic receptor (PXR) is a key transcriptional regulator of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A, a crucial enzyme in the metabolism and detoxification of xenobiotics and endobiotics. PXR is activated by a wide variety of chemicals and serves as a master regulator of detoxification in mammals. Here, we report a fast evaluation method for PXR-drug interactions using differential scanning fluorometry (DSF). DSF analysis revealed that PXR associates with a fluorescence dye in the native state as well as in the unfolded state, which prevented precise evaluation of any shift in the transition midpoint (ΔT (m)) due to association with a drug. Hence, we defined a new parameter, (dF/dT)(50), where F is fluorescence intensity and T is temperature, to describe the ligand concentration. (dF/dT)(50) exhibited better correlation with EC(50) (r(2) = 0.84) than with ΔT m (r(2) = 0.71). The correlation of ΔT m measured using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) with EC(50) (r(2) = 0.86) was similar to the above (dF/dT)(50) correlation. Therefore, the use of (dF/dT)(50) enables DSF to be used for the rapid evaluation of PXR-drug interactions and could provide prescreening to narrow down the collection of candidate ligands that most likely result in transcriptional activation of CYP3A4.