New Study Reveals Surprising Drug Interactions
Are you a fan of mixing and matching your medications? Well, you may want to think twice before doing so. A recent study, published in the prestigious journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, has uncovered some shocking findings about drug interactions.
The researchers behind the study have developed a model that can accurately determine which drugs may interfere with each other if taken together. And the implications of this discovery are huge.
According to the team, this model could greatly aid in the development of oral drugs with better bioavailability. How? By using in vitro systems that mimic the conditions of the gastrointestinal tract.
But that’s not all. The researchers also utilized cutting-edge technology, including ultrasound-mediated delivery of small interfering RNAs and machine-learning algorithms, to identify potential drug interactions.
And the results were eye-opening. The study revealed that a commonly prescribed antibiotic and a blood thinner can actually interfere with each other. This could have serious consequences for patients who are taking both medications.
But the implications of this study go beyond just these two drugs. By understanding more about how drugs interact with intestinal transporters, drug developers can improve the absorbability of new drugs by adding excipients that enhance their interactions with these transporters.
And this technology can also be applied to drugs that are currently in development. By using this model, drug developers can fine-tune the formulation of new drug molecules to prevent interactions with other drugs or improve their absorbability.
One company, Vivtex, has already taken notice of this groundbreaking research. Co-founded by former MIT postdoc Thomas von Erlach, MIT Institute Professor Robert Langer, and study author Giovanni Traverso, Vivtex is now working on developing new oral drug delivery systems using this technology.
The study’s results were impressive, achieving 100% concordance in tests with 24 drugs that have well-characterized drug-transporter interactions. And for 28 clinical drugs and 22 investigational drugs, the model was able to identify 58 unknown drug-transporter interactions.
But the real test came when the researchers validated the model’s predictions for interactions between doxycycline and four drugs through an ex vivo perfusion assay and analysis of pharmacologic data from patients. And the results were spot on.
Lead author of the study, Giovanni Traverso, explained the significance of their findings, stating that “this study is all about how we can model those interactions, which could help us make drugs safer and more efficacious, and predict potential toxicities that may have been difficult to predict until now.”
So next time you’re considering mixing and matching your medications, remember this study and the potential dangers of drug interactions. Thanks to this groundbreaking research, we may now have a better understanding of how to make drugs safer and more effective for all.
