Roles of UDP-glucuronosyltransferases in phytochemical metabolism of herbal medicines and the associated herb-drug interactions.

Li Li, Haihong Hu, Siyun Xu, Quan Zhou, Su Zeng

Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis and Drug Metabolism, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

Current drug metabolism 2012 Jun 1

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UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) play important roles in the disposition of many drugs and xenobiotics. Herbal medicine, an important group of multicomponent therapeutics, is widely and increasingly used. Drug metabolism of herbal medicine mediated by cytochrome P450s has been extensively studied; however, herbal medicine metabolism mediated by UGTs has not been adequately investigated. Thus, it is necessary to evaluate current evidence on the glucuronidation of herbal medicines by UGTs. In this review, the research advances of the potential for commonly used herbal medicines as UGT substrate and modulator are summarized. In addition, the herb-drug interactions associated with UGTs are also discussed.

Citation

Li Li, Haihong Hu, Siyun Xu, Quan Zhou, Su Zeng. Roles of UDP-glucuronosyltransferases in phytochemical metabolism of herbal medicines and the associated herb-drug interactions. Current drug metabolism. 2012 Jun 1;13(5):615-23