BACKGROUND Mercaptopurine is a prodrug requiring intracellular activation to thiopurine nucleotides to exert antileukemic effect. We developed a reversed-phase liquid chromatographic assay for the quantification of mercaptopurine, thioguanine, and methylmercaptopurine nucleoside and nucleotide concentrations in the target tissue, the leukemic lymphoblast. METHODS Leukemic blasts were isolated...

BACKGROUND The ideal manner of thiopurine use in inflammatory bowel disease has not been defined. We aimed at investigating the attitudes of Italian gastroenterologists on thiopurine use. METHODS A web-based survey was performed among 295 gastroenterologists. RESULTS Overall, 70 surveys were completed. At baseline, thiopurine methyltransferase genotype and phenotype were not assessed by 87....

Unilateral explants of rat adrenal medullas grown in the anterior chamber of the eye contained very low phenylethanolamine-Nmethyl transferase (PNMT) activity. When animals were treated with dexamethasone for 7 days, PNMT activity rose more than 10-fold. These findings suggest that the increase in PNMT activity produced by glucocorticoids does not require an intact adrenal innervation. (Endocri...

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Background The efficiency and safety of the thiopurine therapy rely on the concentration of patient's cytotoxic thioguanine nucleotides (TGN), which in turn depend on the deactivation of thiopurine drugs by thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT). The activity of TPMT largely depends on the presence of genetic polymorphisms. Determination of mutations in the TPMT gene before starting 6-mercaptopu...