Administering a drug specifically to where it is intended to act is no easy task, since all organisms have evolved highly efficient mechanisms to rid themselves of unwanted, 'foreign' molecules. Knowledge about the abundance and specificity of the transporter molecules mediating the drug elimination can thus make the difference between ineffective and successful drug therapy. This is why the action of drug transporters is a key concern in antimicrobial therapy, cancer and many other diseases targeted by drugs. This is the first reference handbook to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic, systematically characterizing all known transporters involved in drug elimination and resistance. Combining recent knowledge on all known classes of drug carriers, from microbes to man, it begins with a look at human and mammalian transporters. This is followed by microbial, fungal and parasitic transporters with special attention given to transport across those physiological barriers relevant for drug uptake, distribution and excretion. The result is a key resource that lays the foundations for understanding and investigating the molecular mechanisms for multidrug resistance in cancer cells, microbial resistance to antibiotics and pharmacokinetics in general.
About the Author
Gerhard Ecker is the head of the Pharmacoinformatics Initiative at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Vienna. He studied Pharmacy at the University of Vienna (Ph.D. thesis advisors: W. Fleischhacker and C.R. Noe) and did post-doctoral work with J. Seydel in Borstel (Germany) where he started his SAR and QSAR studies on P-glycoprotein. His main scientific interests are pharmacoinformatic approaches to target drug efflux pumps, in silico screening methods for promiscuous targets, and non-linear methods in drug design.
Peter Chiba is a senior scientist and lecturer at the Medical University of Vienna. He holds a doctorate in Medicine from the University of Vienna and worked at the Universities of Nijmegen (The Netherlands) and South Florida (USA) as a Fulbright scholar and post-doctoral associate. His research focuses on multidrug transport and resistance to drugs in treatment of cancer and microbial disease.
