To: Zebra 365 who wrote (19177 ) 3/2/1999 1:31:00 AM From: Zebra 365 Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 23519
Mechanism-based inactivation of human cytochrome P450 3A4 by grapefruit juice and red wine. Chan WK, Nguyen LT, Miller VP, Harris RZ Department of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211, USA. wchan2@uop.edu Grapefruit juice is well documented to cause clinically significant increases in the plasma concentrations of many therapeutic agents. These interactions are believed to be mediated via inhibition of intestinal cytochrome P-450 3A4 (CYP3A4) by flavonoids and/or other chemicals in grapefruit juice, although the mechanism of that inhibition has not been fully characterized. Like grapefruit juice, red wine contains large amounts of flavonoids and other xenobiotics which could also mediate CYP3A4 inhibition. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of inhibition of CYP3A4 by grapefruit juice and also examined the ability of red wine to inhibit this enzyme. Both red wine and grapefruit juice potently inhibited CYP3A4 activity in a concentration-dependent manner. At 8% of natural strength, enzyme activity was inhibited almost 90 and 84%, respectively, by grapefruit juice and red wine. In contrast, white wine did not appreciably inhibit CYP3A4 activity. Grapefruit juice irreversibly inactivated CYP3A4 in a time- and NADPH-dependent manner. The rate of inactivation mediated by grapefruit juice was similar to that mediated by troleandomycin, a potent mechanism-based inhibitor of CYP3A4. Red wine also inactivated CYP3A4 but at a rate approximately 16% that of grapefruit juice. Inhibition of CYP3A4 by red wine is primarily reversible in nature. The clinical implications of this research are discussed. Grapefruit juice-drug interactions. Bailey DG, Malcolm J, Arnold O, Spence JD Department of Medicine, London Health Sciences Centre, Ontario, Canada. The novel finding that grapefruit juice can markedly augment oral drug bioavailability was based on an unexpected observation from an interaction study between the dihydropyridine calcium channel antagonist, felodipine, and ethanol in which grapefruit juice was used to mask the taste of the ethanol. Subsequent investigations showed that grapefruit juice acted by reducing presystemic felodipine metabolism through selective post-translational down regulation of cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) expression in the intestinal wall. Since the duration of effect of grapefruit juice can last 24 h, repeated juice consumption can result in a cumulative increase in felodipine AUC and Cmax. The high variability of the magnitude of effect among individuals appeared dependent upon inherent differences in enteric CYP3A4 protein expression such that individuals with highest baseline CYP3A4 had the highest proportional increase. At least 20 other drugs have been assessed for an interaction with grapefruit juice. Medications with innately low oral bioavailability because of substantial presystemic metabolism (first-pass effect - Zebra) mediated by CYP3A4 appear affected by grapefruit juice. Clinically relevant interactions seem likely for most dihydropyridines, terfenadine, saquinavir, cyclosporin, midazolam, triazolam and verapamil and may also occur with lovastatin, cisapride and astemizole. The importance of the interaction appears to be influenced by individual patient susceptibility, type and amount of grapefruit juice and administration-related factors.