{"id":19761,"date":"2025-01-10T14:17:46","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=19761"},"modified":"2025-01-10T15:26:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:26:31","slug":"you-may-be-able-to-have-grapefruit-again-someday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=19761","title":{"rendered":"You May Be Able to Have Grapefruit Again Someday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scientists have identified a gene that causes production of a substance in some citrus that interferes with many medications.<\/p>\n

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You may be among the millions of people who have seen a surprisingly specific warning like this on the labels of drugs you take:<\/p>\n

Avoid eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice while using this medication.<\/p>\n

Such warnings are issued for dozens of substances, including docetaxel, a cancer drug<\/a>; erythromycin, an antibiotic<\/a>; and some statins<\/a>, the cholesterol-lowering drugs prescribed to more than a third of American adults over 40<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The problem is a set of molecules, furanocoumarins. High levels of furanocoumarins interfere with human liver enzymes, among other processes. In their presence, medications can build up to unhealthy levels in the body. And grapefruits and some related citrus fruits are full of them.<\/p>\n

But there is no such warning for other kinds of citrus, such as mandarins and other oranges. Citrus researchers at the Volcani Center in Israel reported Wednesday<\/a> in the journal The New Phytologist that, by crossing mandarins and grapefruit, they\u2019ve uncovered genes that produce furanocoumarins in some citrus fruits. It\u2019s a finding that opens the possibility of creating grapefruit that doesn\u2019t require a warning label.<\/p>\n

Scientists had worked out the compounds\u2019 structures and pieced together a basic flowchart of how they are made years ago, said Yoram Eyal, a professor at the Volcani Center. But the precise identities of enzymes catalyzing the process \u2014 the proteins that snip off a branch here, or add a piece there \u2014 remained mysterious. He and his colleagues knew that one way to identify them was to breed citrus high in furanocoumarins with those without. If the offspring of such a cross had varying levels of the substances, it should be possible, by digging into their genetics, to pinpoint the genes for the proteins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe were afraid to approach it, because it\u2019s very time-consuming and it takes many years,\u201d he said, noting how involved it can be to grow new trees from seeds and assess their genetics. \u201cBut finally, we decided we have to dive in.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they examined the offspring of a mandarin and a grapefruit, the researchers saw something remarkable. Fifty percent of the young plants had high levels of furanocourmains, and 50 percent had none. That particular signature meant something very specific, in terms of how the ability to make these substances is inherited.<\/p>\n

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Scientists have identified a gene that causes production of a substance in some citrus that interferes with many medications.You may be among the millions of people who have seen a surprisingly specific warning like this on the labels of drugs you take:Avoid eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice while using this medication.Such warnings are issued for dozens of substances, including docetaxel, a cancer drug; erythromycin, an antibiotic; and some statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs prescribed to more than a third of American adults over 40.The problem is a set of molecules, furanocoumarins. High levels of furanocoumarins interfere with human liver enzymes, among other processes. In their presence, medications can build up to unhealthy levels in the body. And grapefruits and some related citrus fruits are full of them.But there is no such warning for other kinds of citrus, such as mandarins and other oranges. Citrus researchers at the Volcani Center in Israel reported Wednesday in the journal The New Phytologist that, by crossing mandarins and grapefruit, they\u2019ve uncovered genes that produce furanocoumarins in some citrus fruits. It\u2019s a finding that opens the possibility of creating grapefruit that doesn\u2019t require a warning label.Scientists had worked out the compounds\u2019 structures and pieced together a basic flowchart of how they are made years ago, said Yoram Eyal, a professor at the Volcani Center. But the precise identities of enzymes catalyzing the process \u2014 the proteins that snip off a branch here, or add a piece there \u2014 remained mysterious. He and his colleagues knew that one way to identify them was to breed citrus high in furanocoumarins with those without. If the offspring of such a cross had varying levels of the substances, it should be possible, by digging into their genetics, to pinpoint the genes for the proteins.\u201cWe were afraid to approach it, because it\u2019s very time-consuming and it takes many years,\u201d he said, noting how involved it can be to grow new trees from seeds and assess their genetics. \u201cBut finally, we decided we have to dive in.\u201dWhen they examined the offspring of a mandarin and a grapefruit, the researchers saw something remarkable. Fifty percent of the young plants had high levels of furanocourmains, and 50 percent had none. That particular signature meant something very specific, in terms of how the ability to make these substances is inherited.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19763,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19764,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19761\/revisions\/19764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}