Detoxication Strategy of Epoxide Hydrolase—The Basis for a Novel Threshold for Definable Genotoxic Carcinogens

From our recent work on the three-dimensional structure of epoxide hydrolases we theoretically deduced the likelihood of a two-step catalytic mechanism that we and others have subsequently experimentally confirmed. Analysis of the rate of the two steps by us and by others show that the first step—responsible for removal of the reactive epoxide from the system—works extraordinarily fast (typically three orders of magnitude faster than the second step), sucking up the epoxide like a sponge. Regeneration of the free enzyme (the second step of the catalytic mechanism) is slow. This becomes a toxicological problem only at doses of the epoxide that titrate the enzyme out. Our genotoxicity work shows that indeed this generates a practical threshold below which no genotoxicity is observed. This shows that—contrary to old dogma—practical thresholds exist for definable genotoxic carcinogens