Functional interaction of intestinal CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein.

Intestinal CYP3A4-mediated biotransformation and active efflux of absorbed drug by P-glycoprotein are major determinants of bioavailability of orally administered drugs. The hypothesis that CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein may act in concert to limit oral drug bioavailability is attractive from a theoretical point of view. Evidence in support of such an interplay between CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein comes mainly from a limited number of in vitro and animal studies. Obviously, it is a challenging task to demonstrate in vivo in humans that the function of CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein in enterocytes is complementary, and results to directly support this concept remain elusive. However, CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein are clearly an integral part of an intestinal defence system to protect the body against harmful xenobiotics, and drugs that are substrates of both proteins often have a low bioavailability after oral administration. The functional interaction of intestinal CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein warrants additional study. Further understanding this interplay would be potentially useful during drug development to solve bioavailability problems of new drug entities.