Acetylation pharmacogenetics. The slow acetylator phenotype is caused by decreased or absent arylamine N-acetyltransferase in human liver.

The biochemical basis underlying the genetic polymorphism of drug N-acetylation was investigated using a combination of in vivo and in vitro assays for arylamine N-acetyltransferase (NAT) activity and content in human liver. The acetylator phenotype of 26 surgical patients was determined using caffeine as an innocuous probe drug by measurement of the 5-acetyl-amino-6-formylamino-3-methyluracil to 1-methylxanthine molar ratio in urine. Liver wedge biopsies from these patients and livers from 24 organ donors were then used for measurement of N-acetyltransferase activity with the substrate sulfamethazine and for quantitation of immunoreactive N-acetyl-transferase protein. In vivo (caffeine metabolites in urine) and in vitro (sulfamethazine acetylation) measures of N-acetyl-transferase activity correlated very highly (r = 0.98). Moreover, in all subjects tested, slow acetylation both in vivo and in vitro was associated with a decrease in the quantity of immunodetectable N-acetyltransferase protein in liver cytosol relative to that seen in cytosols from rapid acetylator livers. Two kinetically distinct enzyme activities, designated NAT-1 and NAT-2, were partially purified from low- and high-activity livers and their relationship to acetylator status was determined. Low acetylation capacity was related to decreases in the liver content of both of these immunologically related proteins. The results demonstrate that genetically defective arylamine N-acetylation is due to a parallel decrease in the quantity of two structurally and functionally similar acetylating enzymes.