Rilpivirine (TMC278) is a highly potent nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) representing an effective component of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in the treatment of HIV-positive patients. Many antiretroviral drugs commonly used in cART are substrates of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) and/or solute carrier (SLC) drug transporters and, therefore, are prone to pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions (DDIs). The aim of our study was to evaluate rilpivirine interactions with abacavir and lamivudine on selected ABC and SLC transporters in vitro and assess its importance for pharmacokinetics in vivo. Using accumulation assays in MDCK cells overexpressing selected ABC or SLC drug transporters, we revealed rilpivirine as a potent inhibitor of MDR1 and BCRP, but not MRP2, OCT1, OCT2, or MATE1. Subsequent transport experiments across monolayers of MDCKII-MDR1, MDCKII-BCRP, and Caco-2 cells demonstrated that rilpivirine inhibits MDR1-and BCRP-mediated efflux of abacavir and increases its transmembrane transport. In vivo experiments in male Wistar rats confirmed inhibition of MDR1/BCRP in the small intestine, leading to a significant increase in oral bioavailability of abacavir. In conclusion, rilpivirine inhibits MDR1 and BCRP transporters and may affect pharmacokinetic behavior of concomitantly administered substrates of these transporters, such as abacavir.KEYWORDS drug transporter, rilpivirine, abacavir, oral bioavailability, pharmacokinetics, drug-drug interactions, ABC transporters R ilpivirine is a novel nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) approved by the FDA (in 2011) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA; in 2012) (1, 2) for treatment of antiretroviral therapy-naive patients (3, 4). In addition, rilpivirine shows fewer adverse effects than efavirenz and represents an important component of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), particularly in the treatment of HIV-1-infected patients with viral loads of less than 100,000 copies/ml (5).Many antiretroviral drugs commonly used in cART are substrates or inhibitors of ABC (ATP-dependent) and/or SLC (solute carrier) drug transporters (6-9). Their coadministration with other compounds interacting with these transporters can lead to pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and to altered plasma and tissue concentrations of the target drug.P-glycoprotein (ABCB1/MDR1) (10, 11), breast cancer resistance protein (ABCG2/ BCRP) (12), and multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (ABCC2/MRP2) (13) are well-described members of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) drug transporters that are functionally expressed in the small intestine, blood-tissue barriers, and excretory organs (14-17). Together with organic cation transporters (OCTs; SLC22A) of the SLC super-