A new perspective on drug-drug interactions to realize safer treatments - Possibility of a drug's "supporting role" changing the pharmacokinetics of the "main role" -

Researcher information

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Yuyo Yamada, pharmacist, Professor Ryuji Ikeda, Department of Pharmacy, University of Miyazaki Hospital, and Associate Professor Shunsaku Nakagawa, Department of Pharmacy, Kyoto University Hospital, and Tomosuke Terada. A research group led by the professor discovered that the pharmaceutical excipient sulfobutyl ether-β-cyclodextrin (SBE-β-CD) has the potential to alter the pharmacokinetics of the antibiotic teicoplanin.

Teicoplanin is an antibiotic used to treat serious infections. SBE-β-CD is a type of cyclodextrin with a cyclic structure, and is widely used as an additive to increase the solubility of active pharmaceutical ingredients that are difficult to dissolve in water. The research group has previously shown that in hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients being treated with teicoplanin, when the antifungal drug posaconazole, which contains SBE-β-CD as an additive, is used concomitantly, the blood concentration of teicoplanin decreases. Here, we proposed a molecular mechanism that causes this phenomenon to be due to the incorporation of part of the chemical structure of teicoplanin into the internal cavity of SBE-β-CD.

The results of this research indicate the possibility of a new drug-drug interaction in which not only the active ingredients of pharmaceuticals but also "additives" can affect the pharmacokinetics of concomitant drugs. The results of this research were published online in the international academic journal "International Journal of Pharmaceutics" on July 18, 2026.

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