PittPharmacy Graduate Student Hagos Presents at AAPS/ITC Workshop

PittPharmacy_FanuelHagos_0007Fanuel Hagos presented at the at the 2016, Joint AAPS/ITC Workshop on Drug Transporters in ADME, held in Baltimore, Md. in April.  The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists selected Fanuel's abstract entitled Interaction of N-acetylcysteine with OAT1 and OAT3 transporters for podia presentation. The workshop is a continuation of previous transporters focused workshops and its aim is to provide an opportunity for pharmaceutical scientists from across the world "to exchange ideas and learn cutting edge science [on drug transporters] in a focused and “state-of-the-art” meeting." The workshop was attended by leading international experts in transporter research from industry, academia and regulatory authorities including FDA, EMA and PMDA. Hagos presented his novel findings as part of his ongoing thesis project that demonstrated that the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine is a substrate for OAT1 and OAT3 transporters and that inhibition with probenecid increases plasma and brain concentration of NAC in vivo. The findings are significant since they shed light into the pharmacokinetics and mechanism of action of N-acetylcysteine, a drug that has been under intense investigation for its potential use as antioxidant in a number of disease conditions. Hagos was also awarded a travelship grant to attend the meeting and present his work. Hagos is a PittPharmacy graduate student in the clinical pharmaceutical scientist program track. His advisor is Assistant Professor Philip E. Empey, PharmD, PhD, BCPS