Antibiotics screening mammalian cells

H Tomoda, S Omura. New strategy for discovery of enzyme inhibitors screening with intact mammalian cells or intact microorganisms having special functions. J Antibiot 43 1207-1222, 1990. 

Some drugs with low intrinsic permeability achieve acceptable oral bioavailability because they are substrates for uptake transporters, which normally function in nutrient uptake. The most prominent example is the peptide transporter, PepTl, which is active toward peptidomimetic antibiotics such as cephalexin, the antiviral agent valacyclovir [24] and other drugs. PepTl is natively expressed in Caco-2 cells, and adenovirus transduction has been used to increase PepTl expression levels [25]. However, the expression of PepTl was not polarized in this system and this expressed system appears to be of limited value as an improved screening model. PepTl has also been expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells and a variety of other mammalian systems [26, 27]. 

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