Biocatalysts in Detoxication of Drugs of Abuse

Abstract

Currently there is a significant amount of information about the way biocatalysts from animals detoxicate and bioactive drugs of abuse. In some cases, biotransformation data concerning drugs of abuse obtained from animal systems are analogous to the human situation, but in many cases the data are not. Clearly, significant work needs to be done with human biocatalysts to define a role in the biotransformation of drugs of abuse and to relate the work that has already been done in animals. New metabolic pathways will likely be discovered that may link drug metabolism to addiction liability or drug susceptibility in humans. New design and selection technologies are providing the basis to allow the discovery of new biocatalysts that may be useful in the detoxication of drugs of abuse in humans. Fundamentally new approaches using biocatalysts including rationally engineered enzymes, catalytic antibodies, catalytic antibody fragments, ribozymes, oligonucleotides, and other biomacromolecules may provide basic information that may later support the rational design of biocatalysts, which may in turn provide the basis for designing detoxication catalysts for drugs of abuse.