Phenotyping Indices of CYP450 and P-Glycoprotein in Human Volunteers and in Patients Treated with Painkillers or Psychotropic Drugs

Drug-metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters are key determinants of drug pharmacokinetics and response. The cocktail-based cytochrome P450 (CYP) and drug transporter phenotyping approach consists in the administration of multiple CYP or transporter-specific probe drugs to determine their activities simultaneously. Several drug cocktails have been developed over the past two decades in order to assess CYP450 activity in human subjects. However, phenotyping indices were mostly established for healthy volunteers. In this study, we first performed a literature review of 27 clinical pharmacokinetic studies using drug phenotypic cocktails in order to determine 95%,95% tolerance intervals of phenotyping indices in healthy volunteers. Then, we applied these phenotypic indices to 46 phenotypic assessments processed in patients having therapeutic issues when treated with painkillers or psychotropic drugs. Patients were given the complete phenotypic cocktail in order to explore the phenotypic activity of CYP1A2, CYP2B6, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, CYP3A, and P-glycoprotein (P-gp). P-gp activity was evaluated by determining AUC(0–6h) for plasma concentrations over time of fexofenadine, a well-known substrate of P-gp. CYP metabolic activities were assessed by measuring the CYP-specific metabolite/parent drug probe plasma concentrations, yielding single-point metabolic ratios at 2 h, 3 h, and 6 h or AUC(0–6h) ratio after oral administration of the cocktail. The amplitude of phenotyping indices observed in our patients was much wider than those observed in the literature for healthy volunteers. Our study helps define the range of phenotyping indices with “normal” activities in human volunteers and allows classification of patients for further clinical studies regarding CYP and P-gp activities.