Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Food Animal Metabolism Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #165329
Title: ATRAZINE AND ITS METABOLITES ARE NON-COMPETITIVE INHIBITORS OF PHOSPHODIESTERASE

Author
item Roberge, Mark
item Hakk, Heldur
item Larsen, Gerald

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/25/2004
Publication Date: 11/14/2004
Citation: Roberge, M.T., Hakk, H., Larsen, G.L. 2004. Atrazine and its metabolites are non-competitive inhibitors of phosphodiesterase. [abstract] 4th SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Analytical Chemistry) World Congress, Portland OR, November 14-18, 2004.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Atrazine (ATR), 2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-s-triazine, has been implicated in numerous studies to act as an endocrine disruptor, specifically by altering estradiol signaling via increased aromatase activity. Fluorescence polarization (FP) was used to show that the binding equilibria between estrogen receptor-alpha or estrogen receptor-beta, and estradiol were not affected by ATR and its metabolites: ATR-desethyl (ADE), ATR-desisopropyl (ADI), ATR-desethyldesisopropyl (ADD) and terbuthylazine (TBZ). Therefore, ATR and its degradation products were studied to determine their ability to inhibit phosphodiesterase (PDE), the enzyme responsible for hydrolyzing the second messenger cAMP to 5'-AMP. Using FP, it was found that ATR inhibited PDE with an IC50 value of 1.8 uM. This was lower than the known PDE inhibitor isobutyl methylxanthine (IBMX), which had an IC50 value of 4.6 uM. The ATR degradation products ADE, ADI, ADD and TBZ were less effective than ATR at inhibiting PDE when assayed using FP. Classical competitive binding assays, using radiolabeled 14C-cAMP in conjunction with thin layer chromatography (TLC), were used to determine that ATR was a non-competitive inhibitor of PDE.