Relationship between age and plasma esterases.
BACKGROUND
the older population is the most medicated. Despite high drug usage, older people are generally excluded from the research underpinning new drug development. This means that drugs are prescribed to older people with very little understanding of how they are likely to metabolize them. More research is needed to investigate the possible effects of ageing on the biotransformation of drugs. We therefore undertook a cross-sectional study examining the effect of age on the activities of benzoylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase, acetylcholinesterase and aspirin esterase.


METHODS
we measured the activities of benzoylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase in 70 healthy volunteers aged 18-85 years. We measured the activities of acetylcholinesterase and aspirin esterase in 43 healthy volunteers aged 18-85 years. We determined plasma activities of benzoylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase, acetylcholinesterase and aspirin esterase spectrophotometrically.


RESULTS
we found no correlation between the activities of any of the enzymes measured and advancing age.


CONCLUSIONS
age per se is not associated with reductions in the activities of esterase enzymes.
Abou-Hatab
K
K
Department of Geriatric Medicine, Academic Centre, Llandough Hospital, Penarth, UK.
O'Mahony
M S
MS
Patel
S
S
Woodhouse
K
K
D000110:Acetylcholinesterase / Q000097:blood; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001711:Biotransformation / Q000502:physiology*; D002091:Butyrylcholinesterase / Q000097:blood; D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / Q000097:blood; D004950:Esterases / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D013053:Spectrophotometry
D004950:Esterases; D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases; C018737:acetylsalicylic acid hydrolase; D000110:Acetylcholinesterase; D002091:Butyrylcholinesterase