Impaired metabolism may also result if a simultaneously administered drug irreversibly inactivates a common metabolizing enzyme. These inhibitors, in the course of their metabolism by cytochrome P450, inactivate the enzyme and result in impairment of their own metabolism and that of other cosubstrates. This is the case of the furanocoumarins in grapefruit juice, eg, 6′,7′-dihydroxybergamottin and bergamottin, which inactivate CYP3A4 in the intestinal mucosa and consequently enhance its proteolytic degradation. This impairment of intestinal first-pass CYP3A4-dependent metabolism significantly enhances the bioavailability of drugs such as ergotamine, felodipine, nifedipine, terfenadine, verapamil, ethinylestradiol, lovastatin, saquinavir, and cyclosporine A and is associated with clinically relevant DDIs and food-drug interactions. The list of drugs subject to DDIs involving grapefruit juice is extensive and includes many drugs with a very narrow therapeutic index and a high potential for lethal adverse reactions. However, it must be borne in mind that not all commercially available grapefruit juices are equally potent, as the CYP3A4 inactivation potency is totally dependent on the amount of furanocoumarins extracted into the juice from the zest (highest), pith, and pulp of the grapefruit. Furthermore, recovery from these interactions is dependent on CYP3A4 resynthesis and thus may be slow.
Some drugs require conjugation with endogenous substrates such as GSH, glucuronic acid, or sulfate for their inactivation. Consequently, different drugs may compete for the same endogenous substrates, and the faster-reacting drug may effectively deplete endogenous substrate levels and impair the metabolism of the slower-reacting drug. If the latter has a steep dose-response curve or a narrow margin of safety, potentiation of its therapeutic and toxic effects may result.
Acute or chronic diseases that affect liver architecture or function markedly affect hepatic metabolism of some drugs. Such conditions include alcoholic hepatitis, active or inactive alcoholic cirrhosis, hemochromatosis, chronic active hepatitis, biliary cirrhosis, and acute viral or drug-induced hepatitis. Depending on their severity, these conditions may significantly impair hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes, particularly microsomal oxidases, and thereby markedly affect drug elimination. For example, the half-lives of chlordiazepoxide and diazepam in patients with liver cirrhosis or acute viral hepatitis are greatly increased, with a corresponding increase in their effects. Consequently, these drugs may cause coma in patients with liver disease when given in ordinary doses.
Some drugs are metabolized so readily that even marked reduction in liver function does not significantly prolong their action. However, cardiac disease, by limiting blood flow to the liver, may impair disposition of those drugs whose metabolism is
TABLE 4–7 Rapidly metabolized drugs whose hepatic clearance is blood flow-limited.
flow-limited (Table 4–7). These drugs are so readily metabolized by the liver that hepatic clearance is essentially equal to liver blood flow. The impaired enzyme activity or defective formation of enzymes associated with heavy metal poisoning or porphyria also results in reduced hepatic drug metabolism. Pulmonary disease may also affect drug metabolism, as indicated by the impaired hydrolysis of procainamide and procaine in patients with chronic respiratory insufficiency and the increased half-life of antipyrine (a P450 functional probe) in patients with lung cancer.