Provides a timely update to a key textbook on human drug metabolism The third edition of this comprehensive book covers basic concepts of teaching drug metabolism, starting from extreme clinical consequences to systems and mechanisms and toxicity. It provides an invaluable introduction to the core areas of pharmacology and examines recent progress and advances in this fast moving field and its clinical impact. Human Drug Metabolism, 3rd Edition begins by covering basic concepts such as clearance and bioavailability, and looks at the evolution of biotransformation, and how drugs fit into this carefully managed biological environment. More information on how cytochrome P450s function and how they are modulated at the sub-cellular level is offered in this new edition. The book also introduces helpful concepts for those struggling with the relationship of pharmacology to physiology, as well as the inhibition of biotransformational activity. Recent advances in knowledge of a number of other metabolizing systems are covered, including glucuronidation and sulphation, along with the main drug transporters. Also, themes from the last edition are developed in an attempt to chart the progress of personalized medicine from concepts towards practical inclusion in routine therapeutics. The last chapter focuses on our understanding of how and why drugs injure us, both in predictable and unpredictable ways. Appendix A highlights some practical approaches employed in both drug metabolism research and drug discovery, whilst Appendix B outlines the metabolism of some drugs of abuse. Appendix C advises on formal examination preparation and Appendix D lists some substrates, inducers and inhibitors of the major human cytochrome P450s. Human Drug Metabolism, 3rd Edition is an excellent book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in molecular biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacy, and toxicology. It will also appeal to professionals interested in an introduction to this field, or who want to learn more about these bench-to-bedside topics to apply it to their practice.
Edit: The author was probably done dirty by the publisher or editor. His explanations seem sound, but it's very clear, even to a chemistry newbie like me, that someone botched the structure drawings.
Original review: Many incorrect chemical structure drawings and names. Occasional grammar errors in the plain text. It's such a shame, the author has a nice style and this book is very readable but the many misprinted and mislabeled structure drawings are alarming. How can a student trust this book for general metabolism knowledge when it can't even depict THC and MDMA correctly?
Page 210: - wildly wrong structure drawings for 3-butenal, epoxybutene, butenediol, diepoxybutene, and dihydroxyepoxybutene (two of these have identical copypasted incorrect structure lol)
Page 239: - bizarre extraneous hydrogens on structures of MDMA and MDA
Page 242: - identical incorrect structures for delta-8 and delta-9-THC (misplaced double bonds-this matters a lot especially for these two!) - extra (wrong) double bonds in the 11-hydroxy and 9-carboxy products of delta-9-THC
...so this is a pretty fun book if you know a bit, or want to learn more, about chemical structure diagrams. I've been playing "find the impossible molecules" and "is this even the correct name for this" by checking PubChem.
This is almost a 20 year old book, so hopefully not in use, but these mistakes should have been appalling even when it was printed in 2005.
This book's not perfect, but I couldn't possibly justify giving it anything but a five star rating. An impressive amount of work was done by the author, and an impressive amount of content is covered in the book, considering the page count. It's an introductory text, but it's a reasonably comprehensive one. The book is a bit technical for an introductory book, and you probably shouldn't try to read it unless you have at least some knowledge of basic biochemistry (you should definitely stay away from it if you don't find biochem at least somewhat interesting - the again if that were the case why'd you be reading a book like this in the first place?). The work is quite dense and I'd say that in general it's the sort of book where you won't be able to read and understand the stuff that's covered unless you're reasonably focused and concentrated while reading - if you're not fully focused you might as well not bother reading it at all.
I really liked the occasional amusing side notes and comments added by the author here and there, which even made me laugh once or twice; despite being in general a serious and comprehensive textbook, the book was also actually occasionally quite fun to read (in particular I liked the part of the appendix dealing with the metabolism of illicit drugs).