© biolution GmbH 2019
Natural compounds in Grapefruit juice interfere with cancer therapeutics
In a collaboration with the Austrian publisher “RMA Gesundheit” biolution provides monthly a scientific visualization for the series “Praxiswissen”. This series written by medical experts and is directed at general practitioners to update them with recent developments in medical practice.
For an issue discussing how diet can contribute to therapy success in cancer therapy, but also potentially increase side effects we came up with this visualization. Here we depicted cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4), an enzyme responsible for degrading many compounds (xenobiota). This includes also many drugs and therefore is an important determinant of their half-life. Grapefruit contains several chemicals, including bergamottin and nirangin visualised here, which bind and block the active site of CYP3A4. This can increase the level of therapeutics in patients and therefore cause severe side effects.
https://issuu.com/hausarzt/docs/ha_05-2019/4