Organophosphates (OPs), pyrethrins and fipronil, are acaricides commonly used in cattle, mainly as pour on formulations. Scant information is available on their potential interactions with hepatic xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes. This work aimed to evaluate in vitro the potential inhibitory effects of widely employed acaricides on catalytic activities mediated by hepatic cytochrome P450 (CYP) and flavin-monooxygenase (FMO) enzymes in cattle. Bovine (n = 4) liver microsomes were incubated in the absence (control assays) and in presence of different OPs (fenthion, chlorpyrifos, ethion, diazinon and dichlorvos), fipronil and cypermethrin at 0.1-100 μm. Five oxidative enzyme activities were assayed by spectrofluorimetric or HPLC methods: 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (for CYP1A1), methoxyresorufin O-demethylase (for CYP1A2), benzyloxyresorufin O-debenzylase (for CYP2B), testosterone 6-beta hydroxylase (for CYP3A) and benzydamine N-oxidase (for FMO). All acaricides, particularly phosphorothionate-containing OPs, inhibited to some extent more than one enzyme activity. The most frequent inhibitor was fenthion, which inhibited (p < .05) all enzyme activities tested (from 22% at 1 μm to 72% at 100 μm). However, low inhibitory potencies (IC50s higher than 7 μm) of all acaricides studied were observed against the catalytic activities assayed. Therefore, the risk of in vivo metabolic interactions due to inhibition of monooxygenases would be low under common husbandry conditions.
Keywords: acaricides; cattle; cytochromes P450; flavin-monooxygenases; liver.
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