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  4. KAKU Teppei, Ph.D. / Senior Assistant Professor

KAKU Teppei, Ph.D. / Senior Assistant Professor

The Center for Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmaceutics

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Research Topics

1. Structural and functional studies of xenobiotics by UDP-glucuronosyltransferases.

The UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) have been a subject of intense research during the last several decades.
This multiple-enzyme system shares many similarities with cytochromes P-450. Both systems display extremely broad substrate specificity, catalyzing the biotransformation of a variety of endogenous and exogenous substrates with diverse chemical structures and physicochemical properties. UGTs also play a critical role in the bioactive or even toxic compounds.
In this study, UGTs can be responsible simultaneously for metabolism of endogenous compounds and structurally unrelated xenobiotics.

Representative Publications

1. Okada M, Murase K, Makino A, Nakajima M, Kaku T, Furukawa S, Furukawa Y. Effects of estrogens on proliferation and differentiation of neural stem/progenitor cells. Biomed Res., 29(3), 163-70 (2008).

2. Ogura K, Ishikawa Y, Kaku T, Nishiyama T, Ohnuma T, Muro K, Hiratsuka A. Quaternary ammonium-linked glucuronidation of trans-4-hydroxytamoxifen, an active metabolite of tamoxifen by human liver microsomes and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A4. Biochem Pharmacol., 71 (9), 1358-1369 (2006).

3. Kaku T, Ogura K, Nishiyama T, Ohnuma T, Muro K, Hiratsuka A. Quaternary ammonium-linked glucuronidation of tamoxifen by human liver microsomes and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A4. Biochem Pharmacol., 67, 2093-2102 (2004).