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Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Feb 2016Biomarkers have the potential to expedite drug development, increase patient safety, and optimize clinical response. Yet few have achieved regulatory qualification. A... (Review)
Review
Biomarkers have the potential to expedite drug development, increase patient safety, and optimize clinical response. Yet few have achieved regulatory qualification. A survey was conducted to clarify industry's perspective on biomarker qualification and identify the most promising biomarkers for drug development. The results across toxicities/clinical areas highlight challenges in regulatory qualification, although early prioritization and alignment on an evidentiary standard framework are key factors in facilitating biomarker development and qualification.
Topics: Biomarkers; Biomarkers, Pharmacological; Drug Industry; Health Care Sector; Humans; Patient Safety; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Pharmacology; Surveys and Questionnaires; United States; United States Food and Drug Administration
PubMed: 26378777
DOI: 10.1002/cpt.264 -
Clinical Pharmacokinetics May 2016Part I of this article included a pertinent review of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT), the role of postgraft immunosuppression in alloHCT, and... (Review)
Review
Part I of this article included a pertinent review of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT), the role of postgraft immunosuppression in alloHCT, and the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacogenomics of the calcineurin inhibitors and methotrexate. In this article (Part II), we review the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacogenomics of mycophenolic acid (MPA), sirolimus, and the antithymocyte globulins (ATG). We then discuss target concentration intervention (TCI) of these postgraft immunosuppressants in alloHCT patients, with a focus on current evidence for TCI and on how TCI may improve clinical management in these patients. Currently, TCI using trough concentrations is conducted for sirolimus in alloHCT patients. Several studies demonstrate that MPA plasma exposure is associated with clinical outcomes, with an increasing number of alloHCT patients needing TCI of MPA. Compared with MPA, there are fewer pharmacokinetic/dynamic studies of rabbit ATG and horse ATG in alloHCT patients. Future pharmacokinetic/dynamic research of postgraft immunosuppressants should include '-omics'-based tools: pharmacogenomics may be used to gain an improved understanding of the covariates influencing pharmacokinetics as well as proteomics and metabolomics as novel methods to elucidate pharmacodynamic responses.
Topics: Animals; Antilymphocyte Serum; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; Humans; Immunosuppressive Agents; Mycophenolic Acid; Pharmacogenetics; Sirolimus
PubMed: 26620047
DOI: 10.1007/s40262-015-0340-9 -
Current Opinion in Chemical Biology Jun 2019Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) models predict the effect time course resulting from a drug dose. In this review, we summarize the development of mechanistic... (Review)
Review
Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) models predict the effect time course resulting from a drug dose. In this review, we summarize the development of mechanistic PK/PD models that explicitly integrate the kinetics of drug-target interactions into predictions of drug activity. Such mechanistic models are expected to have several advantages over approaches in which concentration and effect are linked using variations of the Hill equation, and where preclinical data are often used as a starting point for modeling drug activity. Instead, explicit use of the full kinetic scheme for drug binding enables time-dependent changes in target occupancy to be calculated using the kinetics of drug-target interactions and drug PK, providing a more precise picture of target engagement and drug action in the non-equilibrium environment of the human body. The mechanistic PK/PD models also generate target vulnerability functions that link target occupancy and effect, and inform on the sensitivity of a target to engagement by a drug. Key factors such as the rate of target turnover can also be integrated into the modeling which, together with target vulnerability, provide additional information on the PK profile required to achieve the desired pharmacological effect and on the utility of kinetic selectivity in developing drugs for specific targets.
Topics: Binding Sites; Humans; Models, Theoretical; Pharmacokinetics; Pharmacology
PubMed: 31030171
DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2019.03.008 -
Trends in Pharmacological Sciences Feb 2016The study of mechanobiology is now widespread. The impact of cell and tissue mechanics on cellular responses is well appreciated. However, knowledge of the impact of... (Review)
Review
The study of mechanobiology is now widespread. The impact of cell and tissue mechanics on cellular responses is well appreciated. However, knowledge of the impact of cell and tissue mechanics on pharmacological responsiveness, and its application to drug screening and mechanistic investigations, have been very limited in scope. We emphasize the need for a heightened awareness of the important bidirectional influence of drugs and biomechanics in all living systems. We propose that the term 'mechanopharmacology' be applied to approaches that employ in vitro systems, biomechanically appropriate to the relevant (patho)physiology, to identify new drugs and drug targets. This article describes the models and techniques that are being developed to transform drug screening and evaluation, ranging from a 2D environment to the dynamic 3D environment of the target expressed in the disease of interest.
Topics: Biomechanical Phenomena; Cell Physiological Phenomena; Compressive Strength; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; Humans; Pharmacology; Shear Strength; Tensile Strength
PubMed: 26651416
DOI: 10.1016/j.tips.2015.10.005 -
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Apr 2020Clinical translation of drug-drug interaction (DDI) studies is limited, and knowledge gaps across different types of DDI evidence make it difficult to consolidate and... (Review)
Review
Clinical translation of drug-drug interaction (DDI) studies is limited, and knowledge gaps across different types of DDI evidence make it difficult to consolidate and link them to clinical consequences. Consequently, we developed information retrieval (IR) models to retrieve DDI and drug-gene interaction (DGI) evidence from 25 million PubMed abstracts and distinguish DDI evidence into in vitro pharmacokinetic (PK), clinical PK, and clinical pharmacodynamic (PD) studies for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved and withdrawn drugs. Additionally, information extraction models were developed to extract DDI-pairs and DGI-pairs from the IR-retrieved abstracts. An overlapping analysis identified 986 unique DDI-pairs between all 3 types of evidence. Another 2,157 and 13,012 DDI-pairs and 3,173 DGI-pairs were identified from known clinical PK/PD DDI, clinical PD DDI, and DGI evidence, respectively. By integrating DDI and DGI evidence, we discovered 119 and 18 new pharmacogenetic hypotheses associated with CYP3A and CYP2D6, respectively. Some of these DGI evidence can also aid us in understanding DDI mechanisms.
Topics: Data Mining; Drug Interactions; Humans; Knowledge Discovery; Pharmacogenetics; Translational Research, Biomedical; United States; United States Food and Drug Administration
PubMed: 31863452
DOI: 10.1002/cpt.1745 -
Pharmacological Reviews Apr 2020Technology in bioanalysis, , and computation have evolved over the past half century to allow for comprehensive assessments of the molecular to whole body pharmacology... (Review)
Review
Technology in bioanalysis, , and computation have evolved over the past half century to allow for comprehensive assessments of the molecular to whole body pharmacology of diverse corticosteroids. Such studies have advanced pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) concepts and models that often generalize across various classes of drugs. These models encompass the "pillars" of pharmacology, namely PK and target drug exposure, the mass-law interactions of drugs with receptors/targets, and the consequent turnover and homeostatic control of genes, biomarkers, physiologic responses, and disease symptoms. Pharmacokinetic methodology utilizes noncompartmental, compartmental, reversible, physiologic [full physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) and minimal PBPK], and target-mediated drug disposition models using a growing array of pharmacometric considerations and software. Basic PK/PD models have emerged (simple direct, biophase, slow receptor binding, indirect response, irreversible, turnover with inactivation, and transduction models) that place emphasis on parsimony, are mechanistic in nature, and serve as highly useful "top-down" methods of quantitating the actions of diverse drugs. These are often components of more complex quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) models that explain the array of responses to various drugs, including corticosteroids. Progressively deeper mechanistic appreciation of PBPK, drug-target interactions, and systems physiology from the molecular (genomic, proteomic, metabolomic) to cellular to whole body levels provides the foundation for enhanced PK/PD to comprehensive QSP models. Our research based on cell, animal, clinical, and theoretical studies with corticosteroids have provided ideas and quantitative methods that have broadly advanced the fields of PK/PD and QSP modeling and illustrates the transition toward a global, systems understanding of actions of diverse drugs. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Over the past half century, pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) have evolved to provide an array of mechanism-based models that help quantitate the disposition and actions of most drugs. We describe how many basic PK and PK/PD model components were identified and often applied to the diverse properties of corticosteroids (CS). The CS have complications in disposition and a wide array of simple receptor-to complex gene-mediated actions in multiple organs. Continued assessments of such complexities have offered opportunities to develop models ranging from simple PK to enhanced PK/PD to quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) that help explain therapeutic and adverse CS effects. Concurrent development of state-of-the-art PK, PK/PD, and QSP models are described alongside experimental studies that revealed diverse CS actions.
Topics: Adrenal Cortex Hormones; Animals; Computational Biology; Humans; Models, Biological; Pharmacokinetics; Pharmacology
PubMed: 32123034
DOI: 10.1124/pr.119.018101 -
British Journal of Pharmacology Aug 2019In mammals, most molecular and cellular processes show circadian changes, leading to daily variations in physiology and ultimately in behaviour. Such daily variations... (Review)
Review
In mammals, most molecular and cellular processes show circadian changes, leading to daily variations in physiology and ultimately in behaviour. Such daily variations induce a temporal coordination of processes that is essential to ensure homeostasis and health. Thus, it is of no surprise that pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of many drugs are also subject to circadian variations, profoundly affecting their efficacy and tolerability. Understanding how circadian rhythms influence drug PK, PD, and toxicity might significantly improve treatment efficacy and decrease related side effects. Therefore, it is essential to take circadian variations into account and to determine circadian parameters in pharmacological studies, especially when drugs have a short half-life or target rhythmic processes. This review provides an overview of the current knowledge on circadian rhythms and their relevance to the field of pharmacology. Methodologies to evaluate circadian rhythms in vitro, in rodent models and in humans, from experimental to computational approaches, are described and discussed. Lastly, we aim at alerting the scientific, medical, and regulatory communities to the relevance of the physiological time, as a key parameter to be considered when designing pharmacological studies. This will eventually lead to more successful preclinical and clinical trials and pave the way to a more personalized treatment to the benefit of the patients.
Topics: Animals; Chronobiology Phenomena; Humans; Pharmacology
PubMed: 31099023
DOI: 10.1111/bph.14712 -
International Journal of Molecular... Feb 2016Drug discovery is a risky, costly and time-consuming process depending on multidisciplinary methods to create safe and effective medicines. Although considerable... (Review)
Review
Drug discovery is a risky, costly and time-consuming process depending on multidisciplinary methods to create safe and effective medicines. Although considerable progress has been made by high-throughput screening methods in drug design, the cost of developing contemporary approved drugs did not match that in the past decade. The major reason is the late-stage clinical failures in Phases II and III because of the complicated interactions between drug-specific, human body and environmental aspects affecting the safety and efficacy of a drug. There is a growing hope that systems-level consideration may provide a new perspective to overcome such current difficulties of drug discovery and development. The systems pharmacology method emerged as a holistic approach and has attracted more and more attention recently. The applications of systems pharmacology not only provide the pharmacodynamic evaluation and target identification of drug molecules, but also give a systems-level of understanding the interaction mechanism between drugs and complex disease. Therefore, the present review is an attempt to introduce how holistic systems pharmacology that integrated in silico ADME/T (i.e., absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity), target fishing and network pharmacology facilitates the discovery of small molecular drugs at the system level.
Topics: Computational Biology; Computer Simulation; Drug Design; Drug Discovery; Humans; Ligands; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Neural Networks, Computer; Pharmacology; Phenotype; Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship; Small Molecule Libraries; Systems Biology
PubMed: 26901192
DOI: 10.3390/ijms17020246 -
British Journal of Pharmacology Jul 2015Traditional pharmacology is defined as the science that deals with drugs and their actions. While small molecule drugs have clear advantages, there are many cases where... (Review)
Review
Traditional pharmacology is defined as the science that deals with drugs and their actions. While small molecule drugs have clear advantages, there are many cases where they have proved to be ineffective, prone to unacceptable side effects, or where due to a particular disease aetiology they cannot possibly be effective. A dominant feature of the small molecule drugs is their single mindedness: they provide either continuous inhibition or continuous activation of the target. Because of that, these drugs tend to engage compensatory mechanisms leading to drug tolerance, drug resistance or, in some cases, sensitization and consequent loss of therapeutic efficacy over time and/or unwanted side effects. Here we discuss new and emerging therapeutic tools and approaches that have potential for treating the majority of disorders for which small molecules are either failing or cannot be developed. These new tools include biologics, such as recombinant hormones and antibodies, as well as approaches involving gene transfer (gene therapy and genome editing) and the introduction of specially designed self-replicating cells. It is clear that no single method is going to be a 'silver bullet', but collectively, these novel approaches hold promise for curing practically every disorder.
Topics: Animals; Biological Products; Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy; Genetic Therapy; Humans; Pharmacology; Protein Engineering; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 25572005
DOI: 10.1111/bph.13066 -
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Feb 2016Clinical pharmacology is a medical specialty whose practitioners teach, undertake research, frame policy, give information and advice about the actions and proper uses... (Review)
Review
Clinical pharmacology is a medical specialty whose practitioners teach, undertake research, frame policy, give information and advice about the actions and proper uses of medicines in humans and implement that knowledge in clinical practice. It involves a combination of several activities: drug discovery and development, training safe prescribers, providing objective and evidence-based therapeutic information to ethics, regulatory and pricing bodies, supporting patient care in an increasingly subspecialized arena where co-morbidities, polypharmacy, altered pharmacokinetics and drug interactions are common and developing and contributing to medicines policies for Governments. Clinical pharmacologists must advocate drug quality and they must also advocate for sustainability of the Discipline. However for this they need appropriate clinical service and training support. This Commentary discusses strategies to ensure the Discipline is supported by teaching, training and policy organizations, to communicate the full benefits of clinical pharmacology services, put a monetary value on clinical pharmacology services and to grow the clinical pharmacology workforce to support a growing clinical, academic and regulatory need.
Topics: Humans; Patient-Centered Care; Pharmacology, Clinical; Pharmacy Service, Hospital; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Workforce; World Health Organization
PubMed: 26466826
DOI: 10.1111/bcp.12803