CYP3

CYP3 subfamily belongs to the broader cytochrome P450 superfamily; its constituent enzymes are involved in oxidative metabolism, including the phase I metabolism of drugs and other exogenous substances (xenobiotics)^[1][2]. Within vertebrates, the CYP3 family comprises several subfamilies, with phylogenetic analysis clearly identifying CYP3A and CYP3B^[1]. Among the studied members of the CYP3 family, CYP3A enzymes are the predominant form of cytochrome P450 found in the digestive and respiratory tracts of vertebrates. They are capable of metabolizing a wide array of lipophilic organic compounds with diverse chemical structures, a function that links this branch of the CYP3 family to the processing of exogenous substances^[1]. The diversity of the CYP3 family is closely tied to its evolutionary divergence; sequence analysis in vertebrates reveals that CYP3A genes in teleost fish, diapsids, and mammals have undergone independent diversification, with much of the observed diversity within the CYP3A subfamily stemming from relatively recent gene duplication events^[1]. In the context of human drug metabolism research, scientists utilize specific substrates and inhibitors to investigate the CYP3, CYP1, and CYP2 families, thereby analyzing P450-mediated metabolism of exogenous substances and the associated structure-activity relationships^[1][2].