Similar substrate specificity of cynomolgus monkey cytochrome P450 2C19 to reported human P450 2C counterpart enzymes by evaluation of 89 drug clearances

Cynomolgus monkeys are used widely in preclinical studies as non-human primate species. The amino acid sequence of cynomolgus monkey cytochrome P450 (P450 or CYP) 2C19 is reportedly highly correlated to that of human CYP2C19 (92%) and CYP2C9 (93%). In the present study, 89 commercially available compounds were screened to find potential substrates for cynomolgus monkey CYP2C19. Of 89 drugs, 34 were metabolically depleted by cynomolgus monkey CYP2C19 with relatively high rates. Among them, 30 compounds have been reported as substrates or inhibitors of, either or both, human CYP2C19 and CYP2C9. Several compounds, including loratadine, showed high selectivity to cynomolgus monkey CYP2C19, and all of these have been reported as human CYP2C19 and/or CYP2C9 substrates. In addition, cynomolgus monkey CYP2C19 formed the same loratadine metabolite as human CYP2C19, descarboethoxyloratadine. These results suggest that cynomolgus monkey CYP2C19 is generally similar to human CYP2C19 and CYP2C9 in its substrate recognition functionality.