Test system for assessing the potential of chemical compounds to alter drug metabolism and clearance

• Research unit: INNOSUISSE
• Project number: 7104.1;5 LSPP-LS

Short description (English)

Test system for assessing the potential of chemical compounds to alter drug metabolism and clearance

Abstract (English)

Humans are exposed to many foreign compounds (xenobiotics) in their diet, in their environment, and as clinically prescribed drugs. In response to these exposures, cellular processes are activated to eliminate these xenobiotics by transforming them into easily excretetable metabolites. These metabolic processes can also lead to altered in vivo half lives of drugs and consequently to reduced therapeutic effects and/or toxicity. In the worst case, changes in xenobiotic metabolism can have severe clinical sequences such as the onset of porphyria attacks in patients suffering from this genetic disease or in the case of altering the disposition of an oral contraceptive with the possibility of failed contraception leading to the inadvertent exposure of a fetus to a new drug. Therefore, it is desirable to screen new therapeutic compounds for their potential to alter biotransformation of chemicals in general and drug candidates in particular. The University of Basel is the owner of a patent that discloses a method for screening test compounds for the direct examination of effects of drugs and chemicals, encompassing the induction response at the genetic level