title: How should thiopurine treatment be monitored?--methodological aspects.
abstract: Monitoring of thiopurine metabolites is important due to a complex metabolism with large interindividual variation, but the suitability of currently used methods has been questioned. The drawbacks include poor reproducibility, the inability to differentiate between the different analytes, as well as the use of a nontarget matrix. Further research should be directed toward measuring thiopurine metabolites in mononuclear cells, measuring the different nucleotides specifically, as well as measuring the incorporation of thioguanine into DNA. The studies should not be limited to thioguanosine nucleotides but include methylthioinosine nucleotides as well.
authors.affiliation: Division of Drug Research, Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linkoping University, Linkoping, Sweden. svante.vikingsson@liu.se
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vikingsson
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Carlsson
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Almer
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peterson
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D015122:Mercaptopurine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011687:Purines / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013866:Thioguanine / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D011687:Purines; C010240:6-methylthiopurine; D015122:Mercaptopurine; D013866:Thioguanine