Abstract

Expression and activity of several key drug metabolizing enzymes (DMEs) and transporters are altered in various pathophysiological conditions, leading to altered drug metabolism and disposition. This can have profound impact on the pharmacotherapy of widely used clinically relevant medications in terms of safety and efficacy by causing inter-individual variabilities in drug responses. This review article highlights altered drug disposition in inflammation and infectious diseases, and commonly encountered disorders such as cancer, obesity/diabetes, fatty liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases and rheumatoid arthritis. Many of the clinically relevant drugs have a narrow therapeutic index. Thus any changes in the disposition of these drugs may lead to reduced efficacy and increased toxicity. The implications of changes in DMEs and transporters on the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics of clinically-relevant medications are also discussed. Inflammation-mediated release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and activation of toll-like receptors (TLRs) are known to play a major role in down-regulation of DMEs and transporters. Although the mechanism by which this occurs is unclear, several studies have shown that inflammation-associated cell-signaling pathway and its interaction with basal transcription factors and nuclear receptors in regulation of DMEs and transporters play a significant role in altered drug metabolism. Altered regulation of DMEs and transporters in a multitude of disease states will contribute towards future development of powerful in vitro and in vivo tools in predicting the drug response and opt for better drug design and development. The goal is to facilitate a better understanding of the mechanistic details underlying the regulation of DMEs and transporters in pathophysiological conditions.

Keywords: Inflammation, drug metabolizing enzymes, drug transporters, pharmacokinetics, Toll-like receptors, cytokines