PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Rajinder K. Bhardwaj AU - Hartmut Glaeser AU - Laurent Becquemont AU - Ulrich Klotz AU - Suresh K. Gupta AU - Martin F. Fromm TI - Piperine, a Major Constituent of Black Pepper, Inhibits Human P-glycoprotein and CYP3A4 AID - 10.1124/jpet.102.034728 DP - 2002 Aug 01 TA - Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics PG - 645--650 VI - 302 IP - 2 4099 - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/302/2/645.short 4100 - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/302/2/645.full SO - J Pharmacol Exp Ther2002 Aug 01; 302 AB - Dietary constituents (e.g., in grapefruit juice; NaCl) and phytochemicals (e.g., St. John's wort) are important agents modifying drug metabolism and transport and thereby contribute to interindividual variability in drug disposition. Most of these drug-food interactions are due to induction or inhibition of P-glycoprotein and/or CYP3A4. Preliminary data indicate that piperine, a major component of black pepper, inhibits drug-metabolizing enzymes in rodents and increases plasma concentrations of several drugs, including P-glycoprotein substrates (phenytoin and rifampin) in humans. However, there are no direct data whether piperine is an inhibitor of human P-glycoprotein and/or CYP3A4. We therefore investigated the influence of piperine on P-glycoprotein-mediated, polarized transport of digoxin and cyclosporine in monolayers of Caco-2 cells. Moreover, by using human liver microsomes we determined the effect of piperine on CYP3A4-mediated formation of the verapamil metabolites D-617 and norverapamil. Piperine inhibited digoxin and cyclosporine A transport in Caco-2 cells with IC50 values of 15.5 and 74.1 μM, respectively. CYP3A4-catalyzed formation of D-617 and norverapamil was inhibited in a mixed fashion, with Ki values of 36 ± 8 (liver 1)/49 ± 6 (liver 2) and 44 ± 10 (liver 1)/77 ± 10 μM (liver 2), respectively. In summary, we showed that piperine inhibits both the drug transporter P-glycoprotein and the major drug-metabolizing enzyme CYP3A4. Because both proteins are expressed in enterocytes and hepatocytes and contribute to a major extent to first-pass elimination of many drugs, our data indicate that dietary piperine could affect plasma concentrations of P-glycoprotein and CYP3A4 substrates in humans, in particular if these drugs are administered orally. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics