Therapeutic Agents and Cytochrome P450

Abstract

The discovery and development of therapeutic agents for the treatment of human diseases involve a long and complex process (Table I). Through coordinated efforts, researchers with diverse scientific disciplines work together as a team to solve many of the issues illustrated in Table 2. In the past, drug metabolism studies were only conducted to support safety assessment in animals and clinical pharmacology studies in humans in the development process. However, scientists in drug metabolism are now playing an increasingly important role in the design, discovery, and development of new therapeutic agents. The evolution of this approach is in part due to the tremendous progress in cytochrome P450 research and the better understanding of the role of each human cytochrome P450 in drug metabolism and drug-induced toxicity. In fact, much of the knowledge regarding human and animal cytochrome P450s can now be either directly or indirectly applied to many aspects of the drug discovery and development process.