Current Drug Metabolism - Volume 10, Issue 9, 2009

Drug intolerance constitutes an important cause of patient morbidity and mortality. Intolerance events can be detected at the final stages of drug development, during clinical trials or even after drug approval. Besides the risks derived from their clinical outcome, drug intolerance events may result in stopping drugs for further development, restriction of drug use or drug withdrawal from the market, in spite of the fact that ma Read More

Adverse drug reactions appear during the clinical use of a drug and constitute a health problem, as they are an important cause of patient morbidity and mortality. In addition, they constitute a major drawback for drug development. Intolerance processes occurring after administration of low drug doses are known as idiosyncratic reactions or as hypersensitivity reactions; the most commonly accepted mechanism for im Read More

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a severe adverse effect. The majority of DILI cases are idiosyncratic and several mechanisms have been postulated to explain why some subjects develop DILI with drugs that are safe for the majority of individuals. Major mechanisms proposed for DILI are based on the production of reactive metabolites, immune-mediated hepatotoxicity, a “danger signal” hypothesis and/or alterations i Read More

NSAIDs are the most important group of drugs involved in hypersensitivity drug reactions, and include heterogeneous compounds with very different chemical structures. These reactions can be IgE dependent (immediate reactions), T cell-mediated (nonimmediate), or induced by a non-specific immunological mechanism related with the blocking of the COX-1 enzyme and the shunting to the lipooxygenase pathway (cross Read More

Thiopurines such as azathioprine, 6-mercaptopurine and 6-thioguanine are antimetabolites that have been used for several decades in the treatment of several diseases including inflammatory bowel diseases. Additional anti-inflammatory properties of these thiopurines have been discovered in recent years. Thiopurine metabolism is complex due to the involvement of multiple enzymes, of which the activities are ge Read More

Polymorphisms in drug-related enzymes and receptors are often strongly related to altered drug response and to the risk of developing drug intolerance. Aspirin, usually available as an over-the-counter drug, is one of the most used drugs worldwide and is a common cause of drug intolerance events. Aspirin undergoes polymorphic metabolism. Among the enzymes involved in aspirin biodisposition a major role is pla Read More

Human CYP2C8 is a key member of the CYP2C family and metabolizes more than 60 clinical drugs. A number of active site residues in CYP2C8 have been identified based on homology modeling and site-directed mutagenesis studies. In the structure of CYP2C8, the large active site cavity exhibits a trifurcated topology that approximates a T or Y shape, which is consistent with the finding that CYP2C8 can efficiently oxidize relatively Read More

Environmental pollution by discharge of dye-containing effluents represents a serious ecological concern in many countries. Public demands for colour-free discharges to receiving waters have made decolouration of a variety of industrial wastewater a top priority. The current existing techniques for dye removal have several drawbacks such as high cost, low efficiency, use of large amounts of chemicals and formation Read More

Hypericum perforatum L. (St. John's wort) extracts have gained popularity as an alternative to conventional antidepressant drugs for mild to moderate forms of depressive disorders. New potential psychiatric uses for extracts in obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and alcohol dependence have also been suggested on the basis of animal studies. The neurochemical mechanisms of these central acti Read More