Is beta-glucuronidase a clinical useful biomarker for an acute organophosphorus poisoning?

Therapeutic significance of β-glucuronidase activity and its inhibitors: A review

The emergence of disease and dearth of effective pharmacological agents on most therapeutic fronts, constitutes a major threat to global public health and man's existence. Consequently, this has created an exigency in the search for new drugs with improved clinical utility or means of potentiating available ones. To this end, accumulating empirical evidence supports molecular target therapy as a plausible egress and, β-glucuronidase (βGLU) - a lysosomal acid hydrolase responsible for the catalytic deconjugation of β-d-glucuronides has emerged as a viable molecular target for several therapeutic applications. The enzyme's activity level in body fluids is also deemed a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of some pathological conditions. Moreover, due to its role in colon carcinogenesis and certain drug-induced dose-limiting toxicities, the development of potent inhibitors of βGLU in human intestinal microbiota has aroused increased attention over the years. Nevertheless, although our literature survey revealed both natural products and synthetic scaffolds as potential inhibitors of the enzyme, only few of these have found clinical utility, albeit with moderate to poor pharmacokinetic profile. Hence, in this review we present a compendium of exploits in the present millennium directed towards the inhibition of βGLU. The aim is to proffer a platform on which new scaffolds can be modelled for improved βGLU inhibitory potency and the development of new therapeutic agents in consequential.

Serum β-glucuronidase activity as a biomarker for acute cholinesterase inhibitor pesticide poisoning

β-glucuronidase (BG) activity is a promising biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis after exposure to organophosphorous (OP) pesticides. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in serum BG activity in patients with acute OP poisoning and to determine whether these changes correlate with the severity of poisoning. Thirty patients with anticholinesterase pesticide poisoning were included, besides 10 healthy volunteers as a control group. Serum activities of butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) and BG were measured for each subject on admission, then after 12 and 24 h. Serum levels of BuChE and BG in poisoned patients were significantly different from the control subjects; these differences persisted in repeated measurements. Moreover, the serum levels showed significant differences within each group of the three time points. A significant negative correlation was found between the serum activities of BuChE and BG in all groups at the three time points. In conclusion, serum BG activity seems a reliable marker for OP poisoning even when measured at 24 h after poisoning.