Myriam El Biali, Michael Wölfl-Duchek, Matthias Jackwerth, Severin Mairinger, Maria Weber, Karsten Bamminger, Stefan Poschner, Ivo Rausch, Natalie Schindler, Irene Hernández Lozano, Walter Jäger, Lukas Nics, Nicolas Tournier, Marcus Hacker, Markus Zeitlinger, Martin Bauer, Oliver Langer
St. John's wort (SJW) extract, a herbal medicine with antidepressant effects, is a potent inducer of intestinal and/or hepatic cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes and P-glycoprotein (P-gp), which can cause clinically relevant drug interactions. It is currently not known whether SJW can also induce P-gp activity at the human blood-brain barrier (BBB), which may potentially lead to decreased brain exposure and efficacy of certain central nervous system (CNS)-targeted P-gp substrate drugs. In this study, we used a combination of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and cocktail phenotyping to gain a comprehensive picture on the effect of SJW on central and peripheral P-gp and CYP activities...
May 2024: Clinical and Translational Science