Bacillus megaterium contains a cytochrome P-450 fatty acid mono-oxygenase which is inducible with barbiturate drugs. We have demonstrated that this enzyme system is inducible with peroxisome proliferators. In mammals, peroxisome proliferators also induce mono-oxygenases in the CYP4A gene family. In this paper we demonstrate that the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs ibuprofen, ketoprofen and indomethacin are potent inducers of fatty acid mono-oxygenase activity as well as of P-450BM-3 protein in B. megaterium. The levels of induction of P-450 protein were 11.8-, 3.9- and 3.0-fold respectively. In addition, we demonstrate that these inducing agents interact with a transcriptional repressor, Bm3R1, which leads to its dissociation from its operator sequence. This provides a rational mechanism for the induction process. This is the first report which demonstrates that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can interact directly with a transcription factor to initiate gene expression, and further substantiates the structure-activity relationships that identify inducers of cytochrome P-450BM-3 and compounds that have the potential to act as peroxisome proliferators and induce CYP4A expression in mammals.
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English et al. (1996) studied this question.