Medicinal herbs and their finished products are rich sources of active phytochemicals, which may affect the transcriptional activity of xenobiotic receptors (PXR, CAR, and AhR) and their downstream targets. This interaction can pose a serious risk of toxicities, especially in chronic patients. We utilize a comprehensive battery of cellular and biochemical assays to evaluate Herb-Drug Interactions (HDI) of herbal medicine or its products, like botanical dietary supplements.
Research Interests
- Herb-drug interaction
- ADME
- Hepatotoxicity
- Genotoxicity
- Microbial enzymes
- Anticancer drug discovery
Biography
Dr. Islam Husain earned his M. Sc. in Microbiology in 2010 and PhD in Microbiology in 2016 from Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur, MP, India. In 2017, he joined the Central Drug Research Institute (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow, as a National Post-Doctoral Fellow (SERB-NPDF). Dr. Husain began working with the University of Mississippi as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in 2018 and was promoted to research scientist in 2023.
His research focuses on the biosafety of medical/dietary herbs and their commercial products. In various ancient and modern cultures, plants are an integral part of herbal medicines and have been used to treat many ailments. Today, however, medicinal herbs are more often formulated and marketed as botanical dietary supplements (BDS), and people consume them as a source of essential nutrients. Most herbal products are available over the counter, and consumers can purchase them without a medical prescription and consume them under the misconstrued notion that “they have no side effects because they are of natural origin”. Medicinal herbs and their products, like BDS, are rich sources of active phytochemicals, which may affect the transcriptional activity of various xenobiotic receptors, including PXR, CAR and AhR and their downstream target genes, including drug-metabolizing cytochromes P-450 and drug transporters. Chronic consumption of these products could pose a risk for herb-drug interactions (HDI), especially in individuals with chronic disease and modulate the pharmacokinetics of co-administered conventional medications. Dr. Husain employs a comprehensive array of cellular and biochemical assays and evaluates the HDI of medicinal/dietary herbs or their products, like BDS.
Publications
Islam Husain, Bill J. Gurley, Hari Babu Kothapalli, Yan-Hong Wang, Larissa Della Vedova, Amar G. Chittiboyina , Ikhlas A. Khan, Shabana I. Khana. 2025. Evaluation of bioaccessibility, metabolic clearance and interaction with xenobiotic receptors (PXR and AhR) of cinnamaldehyde. Food Chemistry: Molecular Sciences. 10, 100237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fochms.2024.100237.
Islam Husain, Olivia R. Dale, Mantasha Idrisi, Bill J. Gurley, Bharathi Avula, Kumar Katragunta, Zulfiqar Ali, Amar Chittiboyina, Gregory Noonan, Ikhlas A. Khan, Shabana I. Khan. 2023. Evaluation of the herb-drug interaction potential of Zingiber officinale and its major phytoconstituents. ACS-Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 71, 19: 7521–7534. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.2c07912.
Islam Husain, Olivia R Dale, Katherine Martin, Bill J Gurley, Sebastian J Adams, Bharathi Avula, Amar G Chittiboyina, Ikhlas A Khan, Shabana I Khan. 2022. Screening of medicinal plants for possible herb-drug interactions through modulating nuclear receptors, drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 301: 115822. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2022.115822.
Islam Husain, Vamshi Manda, Manal Alhusban, Olivia R Dale, Ji-Yeong Bae, Bharathi Avula, Bill J Gurley, Amar G Chittiboyina, Ikhlas A Khan, Shabana I Khan. 2021. Modulation of CYP3A4 and CYP2C9 activity by Bulbine natalensis and its constituents: An assessment of HDI risk of B. natalensis containing supplements. Phytomedicine. 81. 153416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phymed.2020.153416.
Islam Husain, Anjana Sharma, Suresh Kumar, Fayaz Malik. 2016. Purification and characterization of glutaminase free asparaginase from Pseudomonas otitidis: induce apoptosis in human leukemia MOLT-4 cells. Biochimie.121: 38-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biochi.2015.11.012.
Education
Ph.D. Microbiology, Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur, India (2018)