Drug tolerance and biomembranes.

Our understanding of the structure and function of biomembranes is now at a stage where we can begin to examine drug actions on the membrane bilayer. Cells need a certain optimal degree of fluidity in their membranes and some organisms can adapt their membrane composition to maintain the appropriate fluidity under changing environmental conditions. Chronic administration of membrane-disrupting drugs may evoke such an adaptive process, which would show itself in vivo as drug tolerance.