Serum albumins and detoxication of anti-cholinesterase agents

Serum albumin displays an esterase activity that is capable of hydrolysing the anti-cholinesterase compounds carbaryl, paraoxon, chlorpyrifos-oxon, diazoxon and O-hexyl, O-2,5-dichlorphenyl phosphoramidate. The detoxication of all these anti-cholinesterase compounds takes place at significant rates with substrate concentrations in the same order of magnitude as expected during in vivo exposures, even when these substrate concentrations are between 15 and 1300 times lower than the recorded Km constants. Our data suggest that the efficacy of this detoxication system is based on the high concentration of albumin in plasma (and in the rest of the body), and not on the catalytic efficacy itself, which is low for albumin. We conclude the need for a structure–activity relationship study into the albumin-associated esterase activities because this protein is universally present in vertebrates and could compensate for reduced levels of other esterases, i.e., lipoprotein paraoxonase, in some species. It is also remarkable that the biotransformation of xenobiotics can be reliably studied in vitro, although conditions as similar as possible to in vivo situations are necessary.