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The Grapefruit Juice Effect, Rebecca Leitner
The Grapefruit Juice Effect, Rebecca Leitner
The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences
A drug interaction is the effect that a substance can have when taken together with a drug. Grapefruit juice has proven to be a source of interaction with many drugs, causing increased bioavailability, leading to possible toxicity and increased instances of side effects. This paper discusses the mechanisms of the interaction and the components of grapefruit juice responsible for the interaction, as well as two classes of drugs that are affected, calcium channel antagonists and HMGCoA reductase inhibitors, and possible ways to avoid the interaction. The mechanisms are inhibition of the enzyme cytochrome P-450 3A4 (CYP3A4) and the transport molecule …