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Tuesday 16 July 2019 3:36pm

Gout is a painful inflammation of the joins due to high serum uric acid (SUA) based mostly on an unhealthy Western diet. The gold standard for gout treatment is allopurinol. AndrewBahn_arthritis grantOnce converted into oxypurinol, it inhibits production of uric acid in the liver and lowers SUA. Gout has been associated with many comorbidities including hypertension, which requires adjustment of allopurinol dosage. These drug-drug interactions render gout treatment with allopurinol ineffective exposing the patient to further gout attacks and the risk of life-threatening side effects.

As drug-drug interactions are based on competition of drugs at transport proteins we hypothesise transporters of the organic anion transporter family (OATs), which are expressed in liver and kidney, are responsible for the observed drug-drug interaction. By investigating these drug-drug interactions in primary human kidney and liver cells, Dr Bahn aims to identify allopurinol / oxypurinol transporters to resolve these drug-drug interactions and improve management of gout treatment.

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