Scientists May Be Able to Make Grapefruits Compatible With Medications They Currently Interfere With

You may be among the millions of people who have seen surprisingly specific warnings on the labels of the medications you take:

Do not eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice while using this medicine.

Such warnings are issued for dozens of substances, including: Docetaxel, anticancer drug; erythromycin, antibiotic;and some statinscholesterol-lowering drugs prescribed to More than one-third of American adults are over 40 years old.

The problem is a group of molecules called furanocoumarins. High levels of furanocoumarins interfere with human liver enzymes, among other processes. If drugs are present, they can accumulate to unhealthy levels in the body. Grapefruit and related citrus fruits are rich in them.

However, other types of citrus fruits, such as tangerines and other oranges, have no such warning. Citrus researcher at the Israeli Volcano Center reported on Wednesday In The New Phytologist, they announced that they had discovered a gene that produces furanocoumarins in some citrus fruits by crossing mandarins and grapefruits. This is a discovery that opens up the possibility of creating grapefruit that don’t require warning labels.

Scientists had worked out the structure of the compound years ago and compiled a basic flowchart for how to make it, said Professor Yoram Eyal of the Volcano Center. But the exact identity of the enzymes that catalyze this process, the proteins that cut off branches here and add pieces there, remained a mystery. He and his colleagues knew that one way to tell them apart was to cross-breed citrus fruits with and without furanocoumarins. If the offspring of such a cross had varying levels of a substance, a closer look at their genetics should pinpoint the gene for the protein.

“We were afraid to tackle it because it’s so time-consuming and takes years,” he says, explaining how complex it is to grow a new tree from seed and evaluate its genetic characteristics. pointed out. “But ultimately we decided we had to jump in.”

When examining the descendants of mandarin and grapefruit, researchers noticed something remarkable. Fifty percent of the young plants contained high levels of furanocurmaine, and the remaining 50 percent contained no furanocurmaine. That particular characteristic meant something very specific in terms of how the ability to make these substances was inherited.