Prediction of cis-regulatory elements for drug-activated transcription factors in the regulation of drug-metabolising enzymes and drug transporters

Abstract

The expression of drug-metabolising enzymes is affected by many endogenous and exogenous factors, including sex, age, diet and exposure to xenobiotics and drugs. To understand fully how the organism metabolises a drug, these alterations in gene expression must be taken into account. The central process, the definition of likely regulatory elements in the genes coding for enzymes and transporters involved in drug disposition, can be vastly accelerated using existing and emerging bioinformatics methods to unravel the regulatory networks causing drug-mediated induction of genes. Here, various approaches to predict transcription factor interactions with regulatory DNA elements are reviewed.

Keywords::

• drug induction
• drug-metabolising enzymes
• drug response elements
• drug transporters
• nuclear receptors
• transcription factors
• transcription factor binding