Event Abstract Back to Event Food-drug interactions: elucidating complex mixtures and individual constituents Olavi Pelkonen1*, Pia Vuorela2, Moshe Finel3 and Jorma T. Ahokas4 1 University of Oulu, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Finland 2 Åbo Akademi University, Finland 3 University of Helsinki, Molecular and biochemical pharmacology, Finland 4 RMIT-University, Australia Certain components in our food may affect the way patients respond to prescribed drugs, leading to either inefficacy of the treatment, or stimulating adverse drug effects. These two apparently opposite outcomes could both be due to interactions of certain food components with one or more of the enzymes that our body has for protection against chemicals from the environment (xenobiotics). These enzymes play important roles in regulating the concentration of most drugs and, therefore, their inhibition by food components, or up-regulating their expression level, could lead to unwanted and harmful consequences. Yet, it is currently very difficult to predict and thereby avoid such food-drug interactions due to a lack of sufficient and specific knowledge. The major goal of our ongoing project is to characterize the risks and reduce future cases of harmful food-drug interactions, particularly among the more sensitive sections of the population like the elderly and patients undergoing extensive drug treatments due to severe diseases. In order to reach this goal it is essential to develop tools and approaches to gain deeper knowledge into this topic. In line with this, we are working in four different but interacting topics: 1. We have studied the in vitro interactions of 10 most popular (in Australia) herbal preparations with human hepatic cytochrome P450 enzymes by employing an LC-MS method (Sevior et al, Xenobiotica 2010; 40(4): 245–254). A number of in vitro interactions were observed, with obvious implications for further more refined studies. 2. We have investigated the metabolism and potential interactions of thujone, a major neurotoxic alkaloid in Artemisia absinthum (absinthe drink), in a number of human liver preparations and identified the participating P450 enzymes. 3. We have studied metabolism and interactions of Angelica archangelica extracts as well as constituent furocoumarins, in order to elucidate possibilities to extrapolate from individual components to a complex mixture containing different amounts of those components. Angelica extract and many furocoumarins seem to be potent inhibitors of at least CYP1A2 and to a lesser extent, many other CYPs. After the above mentioned studies aimed at testing necessary tools and approaches and demonstrating the feasibility of such studies, we plan to proceed to targeted in vivo studies in human volunteers, to elucidate the possibilities to perform in vitro – in vivo extrapolations and to improve risk assessment. Support: the above mentioned studies are being supported by the Academy of Finland (Council for Health Sciences) and the Finnish Agency for Research and Innovation (TEKES). Keywords: Food-Drug Interactions, herbal medicines Conference: 8th Southeast European Congress on Xenobiotic Metabolism and Toxicity - XEMET 2010, Thessaloniki, Greece, 1 Oct - 5 Oct, 2010. Presentation Type: Invited speaker Topic: Food, drugs and environmental xenobiotics Citation: Pelkonen O, Vuorela P, Finel M and Ahokas JT (2010). Food-drug interactions: elucidating complex mixtures and individual constituents. Front. Pharmacol. Conference Abstract: 8th Southeast European Congress on Xenobiotic Metabolism and Toxicity - XEMET 2010. doi: 10.3389/conf.fphar.2010.60.00184 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 05 Mar 2011; Published Online: 04 Nov 2010. * Correspondence: Dr. Olavi Pelkonen, University of Oulu, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Oulu, Finland, olavi.pelkonen@oulu.fi Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Olavi Pelkonen Pia Vuorela Moshe Finel Jorma T Ahokas Google Olavi Pelkonen Pia Vuorela Moshe Finel Jorma T Ahokas Google Scholar Olavi Pelkonen Pia Vuorela Moshe Finel Jorma T Ahokas PubMed Olavi Pelkonen Pia Vuorela Moshe Finel Jorma T Ahokas Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.