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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, January 2003, p. 138-143, Vol. 47, No. 1
0066-4804/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.47.1.138-143.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, California,1 Department of Medicine,3 Institute of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Inselspital, University of Berne, Berne, Switzerland,4 Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Division of Pharmacokinetics and Drug Therapy, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden2
Received 11 June 2001/ Returned for modification 26 February 2002/ Accepted 24 September 2002
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The extent to which a drug is distributed into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) depends on the relationship between rates of transport into and out of the CSF (i.e., the influx and efflux clearances) relative to the concentrations driving those rates (15, 20). Furthermore, the transport of drug at the serum-CSF barrier is influenced by the capacity of active influx and/or efflux mechanisms. A full description of these transport mechanisms at the serum-CSF barrier requires a parametric (usually compartmental) model (15).
The animal model most widely used to study serum-CSF pharmacokinetics in experimental meningitis is the rabbit meningitis model (11, 18, 25), since it allows sequential in vivo sampling of serum and CSF for measurement of drug concentrations at the same time. The goals of this study are threefold: first, to develop a multicompartment model to describe in vivo transport mechanisms at the serum-CSF barrier in rabbits with experimental meningitis; second, to analyze the effects of different dose regimens on transfer kinetic parameters such as passive diffusion clearance and active efflux clearance; and third, to propose a simulation-based approach to optimize the design of dose-finding trials (27) in experimental meningitis models.
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Measurements of grepafloxacin concentrations. A catheter was placed in the femoral artery for periodic withdrawal of plasma samples, and a spinal needle was inserted into the cisterna magna for collection of CSF samples. Plasma samples for measurement of grepafloxacin concentrations were collected at 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 4, 6, and 8 h for single-dose therapy. If the antibiotic was administered twice, additional plasma samples were drawn at 4.25, 4.5, and 5 h. In parallel, CSF samples for measurement of grepafloxacin concentrations were collected at 0, 0.75, 2.5, 4, 6, and 8 h. At 8 h all animals were killed by intravenous injection of an overdose of pentobarbital.
Analytical procedures. Grepafloxacin concentrations in CSF were measured by an agar diffusion bioassay with antibiotic medium 11 (Difco Laboratories, Detroit, Mich.). Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633 was used as the test strain for all measurements (28). Standard curves were generated in saline with 5% rabbit plasma for measurement of the antibiotic concentrations in CSF, in order to mimic the CSF protein concentration in meningitis.
Population kinetic model. A zero-order input (bolus injection), first-order elimination, three-compartment model was used to describe the time course of serum and CSF drug concentrations. Both the second (peripheral) and the third (CSF) compartments were linked to the central (serum) compartment (Fig. 1A). The relevant differential equations defining the population kinetic model are given in the Appendix. CSF influx and efflux transport processes such as passive transcellular clearance and active efflux clearance were modeled (Fig. 1B; also see the Appendix). Influx clearance was assumed to be equal to passive diffusion clearance; and efflux clearance is the sum of diffusion clearance, active efflux clearance, and bulk flow clearance. Clearance from CSF by drug metabolism is assumed to be negligible (20).
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FIG. 1. (A) Population kinetic three-compartment model. S, central compartment (serum); P, peripheral compartment; C, CSF compartment; Q, intercompartmental clearance between the central and peripheral compartments; CL, total clearance; CLin, total CSF influx clearance; CLout, total CSF efflux clearance. (B) Transfer kinetic processes at the serum-CSF barrier. CLdiff, clearance by passive transcellular diffusion; CLactive, clearance by active efflux; CLbulk, clearance by CSF bulk flow.
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Simulation for dose-concentration relationship. The CSF grepafloxacin concentration-versus-time profile at given doses was simulated as follows: for each dose, 400 rabbits were simulated from the model, with fixed effect parameters drawn from their approximate posterior distribution given the data. Two hundred replications of such simulations were performed to obtain a 90% certainty interval around the concentration-versus-time curve at a given dose.
Simulation for dose-AUCCSF/MIC relationship. It has been shown that achievement of a certain level of the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) for grepafloxacin in CSF (AUCCSF) versus the MIC is a key to therapeutic success. To show how the model can be used to simulate the ratio, we did the following: for each dose, 400 rabbits were simulated from the model, with fixed effect parameters drawn from their approximate posterior distribution given the data. The ratios of the AUCCSF for grepafloxacin versus the MIC were obtained. Two hundred replications of such simulations were performed to obtain a 90% certainty interval around the ratio-versus-dose curve.
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FIG. 2. Goodness-of-fit plots of the three-compartment pharmacokinetic model for grepafloxacin. (Upper panels) Measured concentrations in serum versus predictions for the population (PRED) and predictions for individuals (IPRED). (Lower panels) Measured concentrations in CSF versus predictions for the population and predictions for individuals. Each fine solid line in the left panels represents one animal. Fine dashed lines, lines of identity; heavy dashed lines, smoothed curves for the measured concentrations versus the predictions for the population and predictions for individuals, as illustrated in the corresponding plot.
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View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 1. Population kinetic parameters for grepafloxacin in serum and CSF
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obj], -19). Efflux clearance (in excess of influx clearance, i.e., the sum of active efflux clearance and bulk flow clearance) was not different between rabbits treated with 15 mg of grepafloxacin per kg and those treated with higher doses. Inclusion of a group effect on efflux clearance (in excess of influx clearance) did not improve the model.
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FIG. 3. Passive transcellular diffusion clearance (CLdiff) for different intravenous grepafloxacin dose regimens (15 mg/kg once, 30 mg/kg once, and 50 mg/kg twice). Boxes delimit the interquartile range R (third quartile to first quartile); whiskers indicate 1.5R.
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10 or 30 mg/kg, respectively. The shaded areas in Fig. 4 reflect 90% certainty intervals for estimates of the relationship depicted by the curves. The lower (upper) border of the polygon is determined pointwise as the 5th (95th) percentile of 200 simulations of the fraction of concentrations in CSF that exceed the MIC for 400 simulated rabbits.
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FIG. 4. Percentage of fraction of CSF grepafloxacin concentrations greater than 0.06 mg/liter versus time as a function of dose for 400 simulated rabbits. Solid lines, profiles when the indicated dose is given; shaded areas around solid lines, 90% certainty intervals for the curves (see text); dotted line, 90% probability of having a CSF grepafloxacin concentration greater than the MIC.
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FIG. 5. Percentage of AUCCSF/MIC ratios higher than 50, 100, or 150 at different doses for 400 simulated rabbits. Solid lines, profiles when the indicated dose is given; shaded areas around solid lines, 90% certainty intervals for the curves (see text); dotted line, 90% probability of having the ratio greater than 50, 100, or 150.
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We found a high volume of distribution in the peripheral (tissue) compartment. This is consistent with previous studies (8, 13, 31) and predictions based on the high lipophilicity of the drug. The average partition coefficient is close to the value obtained by descriptive analysis (16.9 versus 16.0%) (14). In a previous study, Karol et al. (16) applied the diffusion and flow model with unidirectional efflux (17) to analyze the concentration in CSF-versus-time profiles of ofloxacin in rabbits. The blood-CSF diffusion clearance and the efflux clearance of ofloxacin were estimated to be 0.0058 and 0.0337 ml/min, respectively, which are close to the values for grepafloxacin obtained with the population kinetic model (0.0055 and 0.032 ml/min, respectively; Table 1).
The estimate of efflux clearance in excess of influx clearance explains the relatively low concentrations of the drug in CSF compared to the high concentrations in other peripheral compartments (20). The estimated difference between population average efflux and influx clearances is larger than the previously described clearance by CSF bulk flow (0.027 versus 0.01 ml/min) (17, 22, 30). This can be explained by the existence of an active efflux mechanism at the serum-CSF barrier. It has been shown that an active transport system for quinolones (located in the choroid plexus) transports fluoroquinolones from the CSF to the circulation (21). One may argue that the bulk flow clearance may be increased in rabbits with meningitis. However, the CSF production rate is reduced by meningitis (24), as inflammation can diminish the efficiency of the choroid plexus pump. Thus, bulk flow clearance in rabbits with experimental meningitis is less rather than more than that in healthy animals. Furthermore, the relatively low partition coefficient of grepafloxacin compared to those of other new quinolones (i.e., BMS 284756; partition coefficient, 44% [10]) indicates active efflux.
Interestingly, the average influx clearance was higher in rabbits given grepafloxacin at 15 mg/kg than in those given higher doses (0.0088 versus 0.0034 ml/min; P < 0.01), and inclusion of a group effect on the influx clearance improved the model. We cannot explain this finding at present. If active efflux is saturated at higher doses, influx clearance should increase, not decrease. Similarly, saturable protein binding at higher doses should increase and not decrease influx clearance. However, perhaps those rabbits given the lowest grepafloxacin dose developed a more pronounced inflammation of the serum-CSF barrier than those given higher doses, which might have resulted in an increased passive diffusion clearance at the serum-CSF barrier (12, 29). If increased inflammation at the lower dose increases average influx clearance, one could expect a decreased efflux clearance (in excess of the influx clearance), as inflammation can reduce bulk flow clearance (see above). In our analysis, however, we did not find a difference in efflux clearance (in excess of influx clearance) in rabbits treated with grepafloxacin at 15 mg/kg compared to the efflux clearance in those treated with higher doses.
A mechanistic modeling-based approach allows not only to study the effects of different dose regimens on transport mechanisms at the serum-CSF barrier but also to analyze of the effect of P glycoprotein at the serum-CSF barrier (9, 26) or the effects of drugs (e.g., methylprednisolone [21]) on transfer kinetic parameters. It permits the prediction of transfer kinetics at the serum-CSF barrier in humans from rabbit data, given appropriate scaling. As demonstrated in Fig. 4, simulations based on a mechanistic model allow to describe dose-concentration in CSF relationships for any dose regimen. As an example, if the desired target concentration in CSF for a study is 0.06 mg/liter (MIC) at 6 h in 90% of the study subjects, a grepafloxacin dose of 15 mg/kg is required (Fig. 4). This may be helpful in the design of pharmacokinetic studies in rabbits with experimental meningitis. One could also create nomograms for doses required to achieve a desired drug exposure after a given dose regimen by using the same model. Other investigators (2, 23) have shown that the AUCCSF/MIC ratio at 24 h is a predictor of bacterial killing in vivo. If the same criterion is to be used in rabbits with experimental meningitis, the model can predict the dose required to achieve a given pharmacodynamic breakpoint (i.e., an AUCCSF/MIC ratio of 100 at 24 h) (Fig. 5). Indeed, the model-based approach is a useful, cost-effective tool providing insight into various outcomes, in lieu of resource-intensive in vivo experiments.
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where AS(t) is the amount of drug in the central compartment (serum) at any time t, ACSF(t) is the amount of drug in the CSF compartment at any time t, VS is the volume of distribution in the central compartment (in liters), VP is the volume of distribution in the peripheral compartment (in liters), VCSF is the volume of distribution in CSF (in liters), CL is the body clearance (in milliliters per hour), Q is the intercompartmental clearance between the central and peripheral compartments (in liters per hour), CLin is the total clearance from the central compartment to the CSF compartment (in milliliters per minute), CLdiff is the passive transcellular diffusion clearance (i.e., active clearance influx is absent), CLout is the total clearance from the CSF to the central compartment (in milliliters per minute); CLactive is the efflux clearance from the CSF to the central compartment via active transport systems; CLbulk is the clearance by CSF bulk flow and is set to a physiological value of 0.01 ml/min (17), CLmetab is the clearance by drug metabolism in the CSF and is assumed to be negligible (20), and PC is the CSF/serum partition coefficient. The initial condition at time for AS is the initial dose (bolus injection, 15 mg/kg).
Hierarchical statistical model.
The hierarchical statistical model expressed generically is
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Xij is an identically and independently normally distributed random error with mean zero and standard deviation
X.
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where Pik is the kth element of Pi, gik is a model for its (log) expectation, and
ik is a normally distributed mean zero random effect. The vector
consists of population parameters such as the volume of distribution in the central compartment, body clearance, passive transcellular diffusion clearance, and efflux clearance from the CSF to the central compartment via active transport systems.
Group effect on passive transcellular diffusion clearance.
A group effect (GE) on passive transcellular diffusion clearance is modeled as
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diff is the population passive transcellular diffusion clearance, and
diff is the interindividual variance of passive transcellular diffusion clearance.
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