Gene level interactions of four commonly used herbal products-a systematic literature

Abstract

Increasing discoveries and introduction of new technologies in genomics field has shown that genomic variations can cause important differences in effects and efficiency of drugs. Thus, the assessment of herbal interactions at gene level can shed light on how effects and efficiency of herbal products (HP) are changed due to genomic variations. In this review, the studies focusing on interactions of four commonly used and clinically important HP, St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), Ginseng (Panax ginseng) and Kava (Piper methysticum) with genomic variations by performing a systematic literature review of PubMed database covering the period from the dates of database’s inception till end of 2016 were investigated. The articles met inclusion criteria were classified according to design of studies. The search and evaluation of thousands of articles brought only 15 articles particularly focusing on interaction of four selected HP with genomic variations in certain genes. Of these 15 articles elaborated in this study 11 performed on human subjects while animal models used in 3 of them. And only 1 study was conducted using cell lines. In total, 17 genes were reported in these studies while one of them was genome wide association study. Although it is known that HP interact with numerous number of genes and genomic variations can alter the efficacy, results of our study have showed these pharmacogenomic mechanisms are poorly investigated. Therefore, comprehensive studies focusing on gene level interactions are strongly needed to improve safety and efficiency standards for HP.