Post #231173 by Humuhumu on Tue, May 9, 2006 1:23 PM

Great news for those who would love to try a Reverb Crash or any of the other many tasty tropical drinks that contain grapefruit juice, but can't due to drug interaction concerns. You won't be able to use fresh-squeezed juice, and it might take some friendly pestering of the juice producers, but it's an important bit of progress:

Study finds how grapefruit juice affects drugs

Tue May 9, 12:25 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. researchers said they have identified the compound in grapefruit juice that affects how some drugs are absorbed in the body and said on Tuesday it might be used to help lower dosages for some patients.

Grapefruit juice is known for its effects on drug metabolism and is avoided by some patients while other deliberately take their drugs with the juice.

The reason is an intestinal enzyme called CYP3A, which partially destroys drugs as they are absorbed. Grapefruit juice, like no other fruit juice, interferes with CYP3A, so the body ends up absorbing more of the drug.

Dr. Paul Watkins of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues say they have identified the substance in grapefruit juice that is responsible -- furanocoumarin.

"It should now be possible to market the furanocoumarin-free grapefruit juice to patients who would otherwise need to avoid grapefruit," Watkins said in a statement.

"In addition, it should be possible to screen new foods for the potential for drug interactions by determining whether they contain furanocoumarins," Watkins said.

"Finally, it may be possible to add furanocoumarins to formulations of certain drugs that tend to be poorly or erratically absorbed to improve their oral delivery."

To test the theory that furanocoumarin was the responsible compound, Watkins and colleagues filtered it out grapefruit juice, which they discovered was then less bitter but otherwise unaltered.

Then they tested 18 men and women taking various drugs on a regular basis including aspirin and birth control pills.

Each fasted in the hospital and got a single dose of the blood pressure drug felopidine, sold under the brand name Plendil, along with either normal grapefruit juice, furanocoumarin-free juice or orange juice.

They then ate and drank normally and blood was taken regularly all day.

In each volunteer, the normal grapefruit juice made between 6 percent to 230 percent more Plendil available in the blood, the researchers reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The furanocoumarin-free grapefruit juice and orange juice had no such effect, they reported.