Food−Drug Interaction between Ferulic Acid and Nateglinide Involving the Fluorescein/H+ Cotransport System

In clinical, patients usually take many kinds of drugs at the same time. Thus, drug−drug interactions involving transporters can often directly affect the therapeutic safety and efficacy of many drugs. However, there have been few studies on food−drug interactions involving transporters. Dietary polyphenols have been widely assumed to be beneficial to human health. Polyphenols are commercially prepared and used as functional foods. We report here for the first time that ferulic acid, which is widely used as a functional food, affects the transport of clinical agents. It is important to be aware of the potential of food−drug interactions and to act in order to prevent undesirable and harmful clinical consequences. Keywords: Nateglinide; fluorescein; ferulic acid; polyphenol; monocarboxylate transporter