Unifying databases, a tool to detect drug interactions
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Drug interactions are a cause of many hospital admissions, but are often difficult to predict. Columbia University researchers have shown that database combination is an effective tool for detection
In particular, they have combined millions of drug side effects data, electrocardiograms and laboratory experiments, and found that two common medications alter heart activity if taken together. One, ceftriaxone, is an antibiotic and the other, lansoprazole, an inhibitor of proton pumps, which is used against the heart. They do not individually affect heart activity, but if both are taken together they can cause arrhythmias and, in the worst cases, even death.
Researchers have confirmed this interaction in laboratory tests. In fact, they have discovered that two drugs together block an ion channel that controls the frequency of beats. It seems that the incidence is higher in white men and women than in others.
In parallel, they have seen that the interaction is very specific, since ceftriaxone is a cephalosporin, and the rest of the cephalosporins do not cause this effect. This detail was extracted from the database junction, which was also tested in laboratory.
Therefore, researchers have concluded that the use of databases to detect drug interactions is effective. The study has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
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