Drug Interactions Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 19, 05/26/2009

Question

What are the common influx transporters involved in drug transport and drug-drug interactions?

Answer

Periodically, the editorial board will release an issue that explains general principles or terms that all clinicians should be familiar with as they are frequently encountered in clinical practice.  They are also concepts built upon in many of the newsletters.  A thorough understanding of both the mechanism and the clinical application of a drug interaction provides the clinician with the greatest opportunity for identifying and determining the relevancy of a particular interaction.

Over the past decade, transporters of medications have emerged as an important new area that is paramount to understanding drug interactions.  In fact, many drug interactions that are not easily explained by an effect on the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme system can now be explained by their influence on influx and efflux cell membrane transporters.(1-4)  Often times these cell membrane transporters work in conjunction with drug metabolizing enzymes, such as the CYP enzyme system, for drug elimination.  This issue will focus on the common influx transporters, their locations in the body and types of compounds that serve as substrates....

There is a table summarizing the influx transporters that are involved in drug transport is available with this newsletter....

Other keywords found in this issue:  organic, anion, cation, kidney, liver, gastrointestinal, basolateral membrane, blood brain barrier, farnesoid, hepatocyte, solute, carrier

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