Novel in vitro systems for prediction of veterinary drug residues in ovine milk and dairy products

A new in vitro tool was developed for the identification of veterinary substrates of the main drug transporter in the mammary gland. These drugs have a much higher chance of being concentrated into ovine milk and thus should be detectable in dairy products. Complementarily, a cell model for the identification of compounds that can inhibit the secretion of drugs into ovine milk, and thus reduce milk residues, was also generated. The ATP-binding cassette transporter G2 (ABCG2) is responsible for the concentration of its substrates into milk. The need to predict potential drug residues in ruminant milk has prompted the development of in vitro cell models over-expressing ABCG2 for these species to detect veterinary drugs that interact with this transporter. Using these models, several substrates for bovine and caprine ABCG2 have been found, and differences in activity between species have been reported. However, despite being of great toxicological relevance, no suitable in vitro model to predict substrates o...