Mechanisms and Consequences of Drug-Drug Interactions

Medications used to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections present a special challenge with respect to the management of potential and actual drug-drug interactions (DDIs). The HIV and HCV treatments may interact with each other, and also interact with drugs of abuse and/or with medications used to treat substance abuse. Possible mechanisms of these DDIs generally include induction or inhibition of activity/expression of human cytochromes P450, glucuronosyl transferases, or energy-dependent transport proteins. These DDIs can be complex and time-dependent in nature. Because time and resources available for new drug development are necessarily limited, not all potential DDIs can be evaluated via clinical pharmacokinetic studies in the course of development of HIV, HCV, and substance abuse treatments. Strategies are needed to refine existing in vitro models and screening techniques to allow more efficient targeting of resources to those clinical studies having the highest impact in terms of enhancing medication effectiveness and patient safety.