Natural Health Products (NHPs) are regulated and require safety and efficacy information for their approval into the Canadian market. Flaxseed lignans are NHPs with putative health benefits in a number of chronic diseases. In the flaxseed the principal lignan is secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG). After oral consumption SDG is converted into its aglycone secoisolarisiresinol (SECO) and subsequently into mammalian lignans (enterodiol (ED) and enterolactone (EL)) in the presence of gastrointestinal microflora. In my Ph.D. research, I conducted a series of in vitro and in vivo PK studies to enable the design of prospective safety and efficacy studies of lignans. In vitro PK studies in the Caco-2 cell monolayer suggest that SDG has poor intestinal permeation and intestinal conjugation characteristics (glucuronidation and sulphation); however, SECO, ED and EL undergo passive permeation and extensive conjugation (SECO<ED<EL) by Caco-2 cells. Single oral and intravenous dose pharmacokinetics in male Wistar rats showed that these lignans exhibit high volumes of distribution, high systemic clearance values, and short half-lives. EL was fatal to the rats at the given intravenous and oral doses while SDG was not orally bioavailable and may not likely be the bioactive lignan form. I investigated the effect of acute SDG and chronic BeneFlax oral administration in blunting the postprandial hyperglycemia in healthy and streptozotocin induced male Wistar type II diabetic rats, respectively; however, my pilot study failed to show any change in postprandial blood glucose levels. Further, I conducted selective cytotoxicity evaluations in prostate and breast cancer cell lines. Only EL caused selective cytotoxicity of breast and prostate cancer cells with IC50 values that may be physiologically achievable. To elucidate the mechanism of action, I tested concentration and time dependent effects of EL on various enzymes and transcription factors of fatty acid metabolism at mRNA and protein levels in cancer (PC-3) and normal (RWPE-1) prostate cell lines. mRNA and protein expression analysis showed a concentration and time dependent inhibition of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and suggested that EL may inhibit FAS to show anti-proliferative effect on prostate cancer. The pharmacokinetic characteristics and pharmacodynamics properties of flaxseed lignans warrant their further investigation.

Pulmonary infections in critically ill patients are common, frequently lethal and treatment may be complicated by bacterial resistance. Piperacillin-tazobactam (PTZ) is a broad-spectrum β-lactam antibiotic, frequently used for pulmonary infections. Lung antibiotic concentration reflects target site concentrations in patients with pneumonia. Critically ill patient’s exhibit marked pharmacokinetic (PK) variability. PTZ exposures resulting in maximal bacterial killing and prevention of emergence of drug resistance are not known. Administration of PTZ by extended infusions (EI) or using Bayesian dosage optimisation, instead of a fixed bolus regimen, may improve clinical outcomes. Experimental work was conducted in an in vitro hollow fibre infection model (HFIM) using two densities of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Experimental data was described by a mathematical model allowing identification of PTZ exposures associated with bacterial killing and suppression of the emergence of resistance. The population PK of PTZ in the plasma and lung of 17 critically ill patients was estimated. Monte Carlo simulation was used to explore the proportion of patients that achieve the plasma and lung PTZ exposures associated with bacterial killing and resistance suppression and to determine the effect of administration schedule. Finally, the population PK of PTZ in the plasma of 146 critically ill patients was estimated and used to construct computer software that can individualise PTZ dosing. Precision of the dosing software was assessed in 8 additional individuals. At low bacterial density a trough piperacillin:MIC ratio of 3.4 for bolus and 10.4 for EI regimens were able to suppress the emergence of resistance. At higher bacterial density all regimens were associated with growth of a resistant sub-population. Pulmonary piperacillin and tazobactam concentrations were unpredictable and negatively correlated to pulmonary permeability. Simulations revealed that EI, compared with bolus dosing, of PTZ is associated with a higher likelihood of bacteria killing. Similar probability of developing resistance was predicted with PTZ administration by EI and by bolus administration. Performance of the dose optimisation software was satisfactory. Current PTZ regimens are insufficient to treat pneumonia in approximately 14% of critically ill patients. Delivery of PTZ by EI may be a more effective method of administration for some patients with nosocomial infections. Individualised PTZ regimens, delivering a target piperacillin concentration, identified in a HFIM, are achievable and should improved clinical outcomes. Patients with a high bacterial burden may required alternative therapeutic strategies to maximize bacterial killing and prevent antimicrobial resistance.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

No description available.

General anesthesia is a drug-induced reversible state where neuromuscular blockade (NMB), hypnosis, and analgesia (jointly denoted by depth of anesthesia - DoA) are guaranteed. This thesis concerns mathematical modeling and feedback control of the effect of the muscle relaxants atracurium and rocuronium, the hypnotic propofol, and the analgesic remifentanil. It is motivated by the need to reduce incidences of awareness and overdose-related post-operative complications that occur in standard clinical practice. A major challenge for identification in closed-loop is the poor excitation provided by the feedback signal. This applies to the case of drugs administered in closed-loop. As a result, the standard models for the effect of anesthetics appear to be over-parameterized. This deteriorates the result of system identification and prevents individualized control. In the first part of the thesis, minimally parameterized models for the single-input single-output NMB and the multiple-input single-output DoA are developed, using real data. The models have a nonlinear Wiener structure: linear time-invariant dynamics cascaded with a static nonlinearity. The proposed models are shown to improve identifiability as compared to the standard ones. The second part of the thesis presents system identification methods for Wiener systems: a batch prediction error method, and two recursive techniques, one based on the extended Kalman filter, and another based on the particle filter. Algorithms are given for both the NMB and the DoA using the minimally parameterized models. Nonlinear adaptive controllers are proposed in the third part of the thesis. Using the model parameter estimates from the extended Kalman filter, the controller performs an online inversion of the Wiener nonlinearity. A pole-placement controller or a linear quadratic Gaussian controller is used for the linearized system. Results show good reference tracking performance both in simulation and in real trials. Relating to patient safety, the existence of undesirable sustained oscillations as consequence of Andronov-Hopf bifurcations for a NMB PID-controlled system is analyzed. Essentially the same bifurcations are observed in the standard and the minimally parameterized models, confirming the ability of the latter to predict the nonlinear behavior of the closed-loop system. Methods to design oscillation-free controllers are outlined.

<p dir="ltr">Torsades de pointes (TdP) is a life-threatening polymorphic ventricular tachycardia associated with QT interval prolongation. Female sex and age > 65 years are risk factors for QT prolongation and TdP, possibly due to the effect of sex hormones. Progesterone shortens QT interval, while estrogen lengthens QT interval in females. Preclinical and clinical evidence indicates that progesterone has protective effects against drug-induced QT interval prolongation. J-Tpeak (JTp) and Tpeak-Tend (Tpe) intervals are biomarkers of early and late repolarization. Population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) models can be used to describe exposure-response relationships and identify sources of variability. In this study, data were pooled from four clinical trials with similar study design investigating the effect of progesterone on ibutilide-induced ventricular repolarization lengthening in healthy premenopausal women during menses or ovulation phase and healthy postmenopausal women. A nonlinear mixed effect model of ibutilide - QTc interval was first developed with preliminary data from 33 subjects. The model was then updated with new data from a total of 52 subjects, assessing the effect of progesterone on drug-induced QTc interval lengthening and identifying sources of variability through covariate analysis. Finally, two PK/PD models of ibutilide - baseline corrected JTpc (ΔJTpc) interval and Tpe (ΔTpe) interval were developed to assess the effect of progestogen on ibutilide-induced early and late repolarization lengthening. Progesterone showed protective effect against ibutilide-induced QTc interval lengthening, mainly through the shortening of pre-ibutilide baseline QTc interval. Body weight, age, race, hypertension, electrocardiogram (ECG) type and estradiol concentration were not significant covariates. Progesterone attenuates ibutilide-induced lengthening of late ventricular repolarization but did not show significant effect on ibutilide-induced early repolarization lengthening. Higher estradiol concentration was related to higher ibutilide-induced early repolarization lengthening. Black race was related to lower ibutilide-induced late repolarization lengthening.</p>

Malaria is the most important parasitic disease in man and it kills approximately 2,000 people each day. Pregnant women are especially vulnerable to malaria with increased incidence and mortality rates. There are indications that pregnancy alters the pharmacokinetic properties of many antimalarial drugs. This is worrisome as lower drug exposures might result in lowered efficacy and lower drug exposures can also accelerate the development and spread of resistant parasites. The aim of this research was to study the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the most commonly used drugs for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria during the second and third trimester of pregnancy using a pharmacometric approach. This thesis presents a number of important findings that increase the current knowledge of antimalarial drug pharmacology and that may have an impact in terms of drug efficacy and resistance. (1) Lower lumefantrine plasma concentrations at day 7 were evident in pregnant women compared to that in non-pregnant patients. Subsequent in-silico simulations with the final pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic lumefantrine/desbutyl-lumefantrine model showed a decreased treatment failure rate after a proposed extended artemether-lumefantrine treatment. (2) Dihydroartemisinin exposure (after intravenous and oral administration of artesunate) was lower during pregnancy compared to that in women 3 months post-partum (same women without malaria). Consecutive in-silico simulations with the final model showed that the underexposure of dihydroartemisinin during pregnancy could be compensated by a 25% dose increase. (3) Artemether/dihydroartemisinin exposure in pregnant women was also lower compared to literature values in non-pregnant patients. This further supports the urgent need for a study in pregnant women with a non-pregnant control group. (4) Quinine pharmacokinetics was not affected by pregnancy trimester within the study population and a study with a non-pregnant control group is needed to evaluate the absolute effects of pregnancy. (5) Finally, a data-dependent power calculation methodology using the log likelihood ratio test was successfully used for sample size calculations of mixed pharmacokinetic study designs (i.e. sparsely and densely sampled patients). Such sample size calculations can contribute to a better design of future pharmacokinetic studies. In conclusion, this thesis showed lower exposures for drugs used to treat uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria during the second and third trimester of pregnancy. More pharmacokinetic studies in pregnant women with a non-pregnant control group are urgently needed to confirm the current findings and to enable an evidence-based dose optimisation. The data-dependent power calculation methodology using the log likelihood ratio test can contribute to an effective design of these future pharmacokinetic studies.

En dépit d’épidémies répétées, il n’existe pas à ce jour de thérapeutique ayant démontré son efficacité dans la maladie à virus Ebola. Sur la base d’expérimentations réalisées chez la souris et le macaque dans le cadre du consortium Reaction!, l’objectif de cette thèse visait à caractériser l’effet d’une molécule antivirale, le favipiravir, via l’implémentation de modèles mathématiques mécanistiques de l’infection et de la réponse immunitaire associée. L’approche utilisée pour construire ces modèles et en estimer les paramètres reposait sur les modèles non linéaires à effets mixtes. Un premier travail a permis d’explorer la relation concentration-effet sur la charge virale plasmatique chez la souris. Le second projet a conduit à caractériser la pharmacocinétique non linéaire dose et temps dépendante du favipiravir chez le macaque, en vue d’identifier les schémas posologiques pertinents pour la réalisation des études d’efficacité chez l’animal infecté. Au décours de leur réalisation, l’intégration des données virologiques et immunitaires générées au sein d’un modèle conjoint a permis de caractériser un effet modéré du favipiravir sur la réplication virale, mais suffisant pour limiter le développement d’une réaction inflammatoire délétère, et ainsi améliorer le taux de survie des animaux traités. Les simulations réalisées avec ce modèle ont pu souligner l’impact déterminant du délai d’initiation du traitement sur la survie. Ces résultats incitent à la poursuite de l’évaluation clinique du favipiravir, en favorisant des essais de prophylaxie ou post exposition. Enfin, un dernier travail a démontré l’absence de potentialisation du favipiravir par la ribavirine dans Ebola. / In spite of recurrent outbreaks, no therapeutics with demonstrated clinical efficacy are available in Ebola virus disease. Based on experimentations performed by Reaction! Consortium in mice and macaques, this thesis aimed to characterize the effect of an antiviral drug, favipiravir, using mechanistic mathematical models of the infection and associated immune response. The approach to build models and estimate parameters relied on nonlinear mixed effect models. The first project of this thesis explored the concentration-effect relationship on the viremia in mice. Then, a second project allowed to characterize the pharmacokinetics of favipiravir in macaques, underlying dose and time non linearity, and to identify relevant dosing regimen for efficacy experiments in infected animals. Once these experiments completed, the integration of the virological and immunological data into a mechanistic joint model shed light on the effect of favipiravir. The moderate inhibition of the viral replication resulting from the favipiravir plasma concentrations was enough to limit the development of a deleterious inflammatory response, and thus improve the survival rate of treated macaques. Simulations performed with this model underlined the crucial impact of the treatment initiation delay on survival. These results encourage the pursuit of the clinical evaluation of favipiravir in prophylaxis or post exposure trials. Finally, a last project demonstrated the lack of benefit of ribavirin addition to favipiravir in Ebola virus disease.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(薬科学) / 乙第13334号 / 論薬科博第3号 / 新制||薬科||13(附属図書館) / (主査)教授 松原 和夫, 教授 山下 富義, 教授 髙倉 喜信 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Pharmaceutical Sciences / Kyoto University / DFAM

La diminution des doses administrées ou même la cessation complète d'un traitement chimiothérapeutique est souvent la conséquence de la réduction du nombre de neutrophiles, qui sont les globules blancs les plus fréquents dans le sang. Cette réduction dans le nombre absolu des neutrophiles, aussi connue sous le nom de myélosuppression, est précipitée par les effets létaux non spécifiques des médicaments anti-cancéreux, qui, parallèlement à leur effet thérapeutique, produisent aussi des effets toxiques sur les cellules saines. Dans le but d'atténuer cet impact myélosuppresseur, on administre aux patients un facteur de stimulation des colonies de granulocytes recombinant humain (rhG-CSF), une forme exogène du G-CSF, l'hormone responsable de la stimulation de la production des neutrophiles et de leurs libération dans la circulation sanguine. Bien que les bienfaits d'un traitement prophylactique avec le G-CSF pendant la chimiothérapie soient bien établis, les protocoles d'administration demeurent mal définis et sont fréquemment déterminés ad libitum par les cliniciens. Avec l'optique d'améliorer le dosage thérapeutique et rationaliser l'utilisation du rhG-CSF pendant le traitement chimiothérapeutique, nous avons développé un modèle physiologique du processus de granulopoïèse, qui incorpore les connaissances actuelles de pointe relatives à la production des neutrophiles des cellules souches hématopoïétiques dans la moelle osseuse. À ce modèle physiologique, nous avons intégré des modèles pharmacocinétiques/pharmacodynamiques (PK/PD) de deux médicaments: le PM00104 (Zalypsis®), un médicament anti-cancéreux, et le rhG-CSF (filgrastim). En se servant des principes fondamentaux sous-jacents à la physiologie, nous avons estimé les paramètres de manière exhaustive sans devoir recourir à l'ajustement des données, ce qui nous a permis de prédire des données cliniques provenant de 172 patients soumis au protocol CHOP14 (6 cycles de chimiothérapie avec une période de 14 jours où l'administration du rhG-CSF se fait du jour 4 au jour 13 post-chimiothérapie). En utilisant ce modèle physio-PK/PD, nous avons démontré que le nombre d'administrations du rhG-CSF pourrait être réduit de dix (pratique actuelle) à quatre ou même trois administrations, à condition de retarder le début du traitement prophylactique par le rhG-CSF. Dans un souci d'applicabilité clinique de notre approche de modélisation, nous avons investigué l'impact de la variabilité PK présente dans une population de patients, sur les prédictions du modèle, en intégrant des modèles PK de population (Pop-PK) des deux médicaments. En considérant des cohortes de 500 patients in silico pour chacun des cinq scénarios de variabilité plausibles et en utilisant trois marqueurs cliniques, soient le temps au nadir des neutrophiles, la valeur du nadir, ainsi que l'aire sous la courbe concentration-effet, nous avons établi qu'il n'y avait aucune différence significative dans les prédictions du modèle entre le patient-type et la population. Ceci démontre la robustesse de l'approche que nous avons développée et qui s'apparente à une approche de pharmacologie quantitative des systèmes (QSP). Motivés par l'utilisation du rhG-CSF dans le traitement d'autres maladies, comme des pathologies périodiques telles que la neutropénie cyclique, nous avons ensuite soumis l'étude du modèle au contexte des maladies dynamiques. En mettant en évidence la non validité du paradigme de la rétroaction des cytokines pour l'administration exogène des mimétiques du G-CSF, nous avons développé un modèle physiologique PK/PD novateur comprenant les concentrations libres et liées du G-CSF. Ce nouveau modèle PK a aussi nécessité des changements dans le modèle PD puisqu’il nous a permis de retracer les concentrations du G-CSF lié aux neutrophiles. Nous avons démontré que l'hypothèse sous-jacente de l'équilibre entre la concentration libre et liée, selon la loi d'action de masse, n'est plus valide pour le G-CSF aux concentrations endogènes et mènerait en fait à la surestimation de la clairance rénale du médicament. En procédant ainsi, nous avons réussi à reproduire des données cliniques obtenues dans diverses conditions (l'administration exogène du G-CSF, l'administration du PM00104, CHOP14). Nous avons aussi fourni une explication logique des mécanismes responsables de la réponse physiologique aux deux médicaments. Finalement, afin de mettre en exergue l’approche intégrative en pharmacologie adoptée dans cette thèse, nous avons démontré sa valeur inestimable pour la mise en lumière et la reconstruction des systèmes vivants complexes, en faisant le parallèle avec d’autres disciplines scientifiques telles que la paléontologie et la forensique, où une approche semblable a largement fait ses preuves. Nous avons aussi discuté du potentiel de la pharmacologie quantitative des systèmes appliquées au développement du médicament et à la médecine translationnelle, en se servant du modèle physio-PK/PD que nous avons mis au point. / Dose-limitation or interruption of chemotherapeutic treatment is most often prompted by a decrease in circulating neutrophils, the most abundant white blood cell in the human body. Myelosuppression, or a reduction in absolute neutrophil counts (ANCs) by anti-cancer treatments, is precipitated by the nonspecific killing effect of chemotherapeutic drugs which have toxic effects on noncancerous cells. To mitigate this myelosuppressive effect, patients are frequently administered recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF), an exogenous form of the cytokine G-CSF, which stimulates neutrophil production and release into the blood stream. While the benefits of adjuvant treatment rhG-CSF during chemotherapy are well recognised, the protocols with which it is administered are not well defined and are frequently determined ad libitum by clinicians. To quantify and address the optimisation of the administration of rhG-CSF during chemotherapeutic treatment, we developed a physiological model of granulopoiesis which incorporates the contemporary understanding of the production of neutrophils from the hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow. To this physiological model, we incorporated mechanistic pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) models of two drugs, PM00104 (Zalypsis), a chemotherapeutic drug, and rhG-CSF (filgrastim). Through exhaustive parameter estimation using first principles and no data fitting, we successfully predicted clinical data from 172 patients for an average patient undergoing the CHOP14 protocol (6 cycles of 14-day periodic chemotherapy with rhG-CSF administered on days 4-13 post-chemotherapy). We then demonstrated that delaying the administration of rhG-CSF to 6 or 7 days post-chemotherapy allowed for a reduction in the number of filgrastim administrations from ten to four or even three while maintaining or improving the neutrophil nadir. We also investigated the effects of PK variability on the model's predictions by incorporating population PK (PopPK) models of both drugs. Using five different variability scenarios and cohorts of 500 in silico patients per scenario, we established that there are no statistically significant differences between a typical patient and the population in the model's predictions with respect to three crucial clinical endpoints, namely the time to ANC nadir, the ANC nadir, and the area under the concentration-effect curve. The model's robustness to PK variability allows for the scaling up from the individual to population level. Motivated by the use of rhG-CSF in other disease-states, namely periodic pathologies like cyclical neutropenia, we next endeavoured to contextualise the model within dynamic diseases. By bringing to light that the cytokine paradigm is broken when exogenous cytokine mimetics are administered, we developed a novel physiological PK model for G-CSF incorporating both unbound and bound concentrations. The updated PK model prompted changes to the PD model since we could now track the concentrations of bound G-CSF. We showed that the mass-action equilibrium hypopthesis for bound and unbound drugs is not valid and led to overestimations of the renal clearance of G-CSF. We also successfully reproduced clinical data in a variety of settings (exogenous G-CSF alone, PM00104 alone, CHOP14 protocol) and clarified the mechanisms underlying the body's response to both drugs. Lastly, we discussed the potential of quantitative systems pharmacology in both drug development and translational medicine by using the physiological PK/PD model we developed.