Comparative study of human and mouse pregnane X receptor agonistic activity in 200 pesticides using in vitro reporter gene assays

The nuclear receptor, pregnane X receptor (PXR), is a ligand-dependent transcription factor that regulates genes involved in xenobiotic metabolism. Recent studies have shown that PXR activation may affect energy metabolism as well as the endocrine and immune systems. In this study, we characterized and compared the agonistic activities of a variety of pesticides against human PXR (hPXR) and mouse PXR (mPXR). We tested the hPXR and mPXR agonistic activity of 200 pesticides (29 organochlorines, 11 diphenyl ethers, 56 organophosphorus pesticides, 12 pyrethroids, 22 carbamates, 12 acid amides, 7 triazines, 7 ureas, and 44 Others) by reporter gene assays using COS-7 simian kidney cells. Of the 200 pesticides tested, 106 and 93 activated hPXR and mPXR, respectively, and a total of 111 had hPXR and/or mPXR agonistic activity with greater or lesser inter-species differences. Although all of the pyrethroids and most of the organochlorines and acid amides acted as PXR agonists, a wide range of pesticides with diverse structures also showed hPXR and/or mPXR agonistic activity. Among the 200 pesticides, pyributicarb, pretilachlor, piperophos and butamifos for hPXR, and phosalone, prochloraz, pendimethalin, and butamifos for mPXR, acted as particularly potent activators at low concentrations in the order of 10⁻⁸-10⁻⁷ M. In addition, we found that several organophosphorus oxon- and pyributicarb oxon-metabolites decreased PXR activation potency compared to their parent compounds. These results suggest that a large number of structurally diverse pesticides and their metabolites possess PXR-mediated transcriptional activity, and their ability to do so varies in a species-dependent manner in humans and mice.