Decrease in the activity of the drug-metabolizing enzymes of rat liver following the administration of tilorone hydrochloride.

Tilorone hydrochloride, 2,7-bias(2-(diethylamino)ethoxy(fluoren-9-one dihydrochloride, has been studied to determine its effect on the drug-metabolizing enzymes of the liver of male Charles River CD strain rats. Single and multiple doses of tilorone-HCl, 100 mg/kg/day po, were used. Most experiments were performed 24 hr after the last dose, except for a study 5 hr after dosing, and those in which the duration of effects of tilorone hydrochloride were determined. The hexobarbital sleeping time was prolonged after both single doses and four doses of tilorone hydrochloride. The 4-dose regimen prolonged the zoxazolamine paralysis time but the single dose did not. A decrease in microsomal protein was observed after the single- and 4-dose regimens but not after 21 daily doses of tilorone-HCl. Cytochrome P-450 content of microsomes was decreased by the single doses, 100 and 250 mg/kg po, and by 4 and 21 doses of 100 mg/kg/day po. Activities of aminopyrine demethylase and hexobarbital oxidase also were decreased by the above regimens, but the activity of hexobarbital oxidase was affected more markedly. Electron micrographs of rat liver, after treatment with tilorone-HCl, 100 mg/kg/day for 21 days, revealed many membranous structures in the form of whorls.