title: Understanding the mechanism of cytochrome P450 3A4: recent advances and remaining problems.
abstract: Cytochromes P450 (CYPs) represent a diverse group of heme-thiolate proteins found in almost all organisms. CYPs share a common protein fold but differ in substrate selectivity and catalyze a wide variety of monooxygenation reactions via activation of molecular oxygen. Among 57 human P450s, the 3A4 isoform (CYP3A4) is the most abundant and the most important because it metabolizes the majority of administered drugs. A remarkable feature of CYP3A4 is its extreme promiscuity in substrate specificity and cooperative substrate binding, which often leads to undesirable drug-drug interactions and toxic side effects. Owing to its importance in drug development and therapy, CYP3A4 has been the most extensively studied mammalian P450. In this review we provide an overview on recent progress and remaining problems in the CYP3A4 research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. sevrioui@uci.edu
authors.forename: Irina F
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Sevrioukova
authors.forename: Thomas L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Poulos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D051544:Cytochrome P-450 CYP3A / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D065692:Cytochrome P-450 CYP3A Inhibitors; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular
chemical_list: D065692:Cytochrome P-450 CYP3A Inhibitors; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D051544:Cytochrome P-450 CYP3A