Attallah kappas biography of william

Nutritional Pharmacology: Regulation of Drug and Hormone Metabolism by Components of the Human Diet

Proteins, carbohydrates, and fats in foods can affect the manner and rapidity with which the body—principally the liver—processes and biotransforms drugs, and thus alters the drugs' effectiveness.

In 1976, Attallah Kappas (1926- ) and colleagues at the Rockefeller Hospital began a series of exacting metabolic studies in humans that first defined the specific effects of diet components on drug metabolism.

Attallah kappas biography of william

The research focused on a class of proteins active in the liver known as cytochromes P450. These molecules contain heme, and it was Kappas' long-term interest in metabolic pathways related to heme in the liver that led him to study the effects of controlled, calculated, diets on P450-mediated chemical biotransformations in humans.

The results of these studies helped to establish a firm scientific foundation for the developing field of nutritional phar