Liquor and Drugs—As a Matter of Fat

Abstract

A large number of pharmacologically active drugs are hydrophobic or amphiphilic compounds suggesting that their targets in the body are hydrophobic sites or at hydrophobic-hydrophilic interfaces . The hydrophobic sites could be either proteins and receptors or the interior of cellular membranes. The interfaces could be surfaces of membranes. In any case the lipids are among the prime suspects, directly or indirectly. Even in the cases where lipids are not directly involved at the site of action, they are likely to be at some stage during the route from administration and application of the drug to it finally arrives at the target. This holds true whether the drug is taken orally, injected in the blood, or is applied through the skin. In all cases there are tremendous lipid-dominated barriers for the drug molecules to overcome. Crossing the intestinal barrier , the blood-brain barrier, or the dermal barrier all involve coming to terms with lipids in organized form, typically as lipid bilayers and cell membranes. The ability of drugs to pass the blood-brain barrier can sometimes be predicted based on the interfacial activity of the drug.