Microbial metabolism of fluorinated drugs

Abstract A significant proportion of pharmaceuticals currently available contain fluorine, which is a key element in these drugs for a variety of reasons, for example, to improve uptake across biological membranes by altering lipophilicity, or prolonging effectiveness by inhibiting metabolic degradation. Drugs have structural features, in particular fluorophenyl, that are known to be biotransformed via common microbial pathways of aromatic hydrocarbon metabolism. Furthermore, some bacteria and fungi have extensive cytochrome P450 activity enabling the drugs to be metabolized in an analogous manner to mammals. In this chapter we examine the biochemistry of fluorinated-drug metabolism in microorganisms and how this can be applied to drug development, the biosynthesis of valuable drug metabolites, and bioremediation.