A Useful Tool for Drug Interaction Evaluation: The University of Washington Metabolism and Transport Drug Interaction Database

Abstract

The Metabolism and Transport Drug Interaction Database (http://www.druginteractioninfo.org) is a web-based research and analysis tool developed in the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Washington. The database has the largest manually curated collection of data related to drug interactions in humans. The tool integrates information from the literature, public repositories, reference textbooks, guideline documents, product prescribing labels and clinical review sections of new drug approval (NDA) packages. The database’s easy-to-use web portal offers tools for visualisation, reporting and filtering of information. The database helps scientists to mine kinetics information for drug-metabolising enzymes and transporters, to assess the extent of in vivo drug interaction studies, as well as case reports for drugs, therapeutic proteins, food products and herbal derivatives. This review provides a brief description of the database organisation, its search functionalities and examples of use.