Drug metabolism also known as xenobiotic metabolism is the biochemical modification of pharmaceutical substances or xenobiotics respectively by living organisms, usually through specialized enzymatic systems.
The reactions in these pathways are of specific interest in medicine as part of drug metabolism and as a factor paying to multidrug resistance in infectious diseases and cancer chemotherapy. The actions of some drugs as substrates or inhibitors of enzymes involved in xenobiotic metabolism are also responsible for a hazardous drug interactions. Metabolic pathways are also important in environmental science, xenobiotic metabolism of microorganisms determines the pollutant will be broken down during bioremediation, or persist in the environment. The enzymes of xenobiotic metabolism are also important in agriculture, since they may produce resistance to pesticides and herbicides such as glutathione S-transferases.
Last date updated on June, 2023