Membrane Transporter (MT) Community

Session Description

The Membrane Transporter (MT) Community will provide a short introduction of the leadership team and accomplishments, along with future plans and opportunities for members. Following this, we will provide an opportunity to hear from academic, industry and regulatory leaders describe their thoughts or work associated with an emerging topic in the field; the influence of natural products or excipients on transporter activity. Natural product co-administration with various pharmaceutical drugs is highly prevalent in patients. Unfortunately, due to a lack of understanding surrounding the impact of many natural products on drug transporters, such combinations can promote drug-interactions that could impact treatment efficacy or outcome. Similarly, concoctions with various excipients have been developed with different drug or food formulations, largely due to the long-held belief that excipients are pharmacologically inert substances. However, recent discoveries have highlighted that drug transport processes may be impacted by various excipients which can consequentially influence therapeutic outcome. As such, it is becoming increasingly imperative that natural products or excipients be evaluated for their influence on transporters to assess for potential interactions that can affect therapeutic outcomes, or drug development. Therefore our speakers, Mary Paine, PhD, Xiaoyan Chu, PhD, and Lei Zhang, PhD, will discuss current knowledge, gaps and perspectives of natural product- or excipient- associated drug-interactions along with their subsequent clinical results. Moreover, the speakers will provide their insight on approaches that should be considered to improve drug combination strategies, drug formulations, regulatory acceptance, and patient outcome. Following a brief discussion by each speaker, the session will conclude with a roundtable panel discussion between speakers and audience members, as a means to develop future considerations for this clinical complication that can impact drug absorption or disposition.

Learning Objectives

1. Attendees will understand the impact of the MT Community along with information on how members can become involved.

2. Attendees will be able to recognize considerations made by regulatory or industry bodies in regards to the impact of excipients on drug efficacy or safety as well as assess risks associated with natural product use and drug interactions through altered transport activity.

Session Schedule

1:15 PM - 1:20 PM ET
MT Community Leadership
Jason Sprowl, PhD, Kathy Cheung, PharmD, and Maciej Zamek-Gliszczynski, PhD

1:20 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Assessing Transporter-Mediated Natural Product-Drug Interactions: Clinical Evaluation With a Probe Cocktail
Mary Paine, PhD

1:15 PM - 1:25 PM ET
Effects of Pharmaceutical Excipients on Drug Transporters: An Industrial Case Study
Xiaoyan Chu, PhD

1:25 PM - 1:37 PM ET
Regulatory Research on the Effect of Excipients on Drug Absorption
Lei Zhang, PhD

1:37 PM - 2:15 PM ET
Roundtable Discussion, Live Q&A and Closing Remarks
All Speakers