Birgitta Sjodin and Bengt Mannervik
6-Chloro- and 6-bromopurines can cross the blood-brain barrier and in situ give rise to substrates of multidrug resistance-associated proteins (MRPs). The electrophilic purines form glutathione conjugates in reactions catalyzed by intracellular glutathione transferases (GSTs), and the conjugates are subsequently exported from the cells by ATPdependent membrane transporters. In rodent model systems it has been demonstrated that suitably radiolabeled 6-halogenopurines by this scheme are pro-probes useful in monitoring the functionality of MRPs in intact brains using positron emission tomography. Prior to applications in human subjects it is imperative to establish the purine pro-probes as effective substrates for human GSTs occurring in brain and other tissues. We have developed a spectrophotometric assay for the glutathione conjugation and determined specific activities with a range of human GSTs as well as with some rat GSTs for comparison. The ubiquitous GST P1-1 showed the highest activities with the 6-halogenopurines, which bodes well for the application of pro-probes for human investigations.