The Role of Transporters in the Pharmacokinetics of Antibiotics

Abstract

Aims: Various transporters including efflux transporters and uptake transporters play an important role in the pharmacokinetics of drugs. At present, interestingly, more and more studies had found that numbers of antibiotics were the substrates of transporters, and these antibiotics were usually combined with other drugs to treat disease more effectively in clinic. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the role of transporters in pharmacokinetics and drugdrug interactions of antibiotics. Methods: This review summarized the findings of recent studies as well as information obtained from several databases (update to June 2012): ISI Web of Knowledge SM (ISI WoK), SciFinder (Caplus, Medline, Registry,Casreact, Chrmlist, Chemcasts) and PubMed (indexed for Medline). Results: The present review will provides useful information for studying the role of transporters in pharmacokinetics and drug-drug interactions of antibiotics, and should be of help to those intending to further research on these topics. Conclusions: The drug transporter plays a significant role in the pharmacokinetics and drug-drug interactions of antibiotics.