Pharmacokinetics 4: Drug Excretion Flashcards

1
Q

What is drug excretion?

A

The process whereby an unchanged drug undergoes permanent removal from the body via kidneys or hepatobiliary system.

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2
Q

How is drug elimination different to excretion?

A

Irreversible removal of the drug + drug lost through biotransformation

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3
Q

Which organs are the main excretory organs? What other organs can be used for excretion?

A

The kidneys and the liver are the primary excreting organs.

Sweat and tears

Saliva (most is swallowed though)

Breast milk (basic lipophilic drugs)

Hairs, nails, skin minor overall

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4
Q

What kinds of drugs can be excreted in breast milk?

A

Basic lipophilic drugs (eg cocaine)

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5
Q

What are the main ways for drug to be removed?

A

Metabolism within the liver and gut wall is the primary route (>75% of drugs)

Renal clearance is less common but also a route (20%)

Bile excretion (4- 5%)

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6
Q

Why are the kidneys such a large site of drug excretion?

A

They receive a large blood flow (1L/min which is 25% of CO at rest) 10% of this is filtered at the glomerulus.

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7
Q

What percentage of drugs use the kidneys as their primary route of excretion?

A

25%

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8
Q

Do kidneys remove the parent drug or the metabolite from the blood?

A

Both (Drugs that are excreted unchanged in urine are called renally cleared drugs)

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9
Q

Examples of renally cleared drugs:

A

Penicillins

Digoxin

Cephalosporins

Antifungals

Metformin

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10
Q

What drugs are filtered at the glomerulus?

A

Drugs that are unbound pass through glomerular pores.

Protein bound drugs are inhibited and stay in the blood.

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11
Q

Which drugs are reabsorbed at the proximal tubule?

A

Mainly small, lipophilic, neutral drugs

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12
Q

How can drugs move into and out of the kidneys?

A

Glomerular filtration (unbound drugs) Into filtrate

Passive reabsorption out of filtrate

Active transport Into filtrate

Drug excretion depends on these 3 factors.

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13
Q

Where does active transport of drugs into urine take place?

A

In the proximal tubules

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14
Q

What is GFR among adults?

A

~120ml/min [180L/day in adults]

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15
Q

How does active transport from the blood into the filtrate take place?

A

They depend on both SLC and ABC drug transporters.

SLC transporters are located on basolateral membrane.

ABC transporters pump drugs from proximal tubule cells into the urinary lumen.

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16
Q

True or False:

Amount of drug transported from blood to urine by transporters is constant.

A

True, however, theoretically these transporters can be saturated at higher drug doses.(only drug where this is known to happen is alcohol)

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17
Q

What causes passive reabsorption of drugs back into the blood?

A

The drugs must be permeant for this to take place. For this reason only small, lipophilic and neutral or nonionised drugs can be reabsorbed.

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18
Q

What determines how much reabsorption takes place?

A

Reabsorption is proportional to drug concentration in blood.

Drug pKa also matters (CLr may change with varying urine pH)

19
Q

What happens to proteins bound to plasma?

A

Only free drug is filtered (bound drug doesn’t)

Free and bound drugs are both actively transported into the urine.

20
Q

What influences urinary pH?

A

Diet (high protein diet = acidic urine)

21
Q

How does pH affect urinary excretion?

A

Acidic drugs are -ve in alkaline urine = less reabsorption.

Basic drugs in acidic pH = less reabsorption

22
Q

What is actual renal clearance?

A

It is indicated by parent drug concentrations in the urine.

Baseline renal clearance is shown by fu x GFR and secretion/reabsorption creates the actual renal clearance.

23
Q

When is a drug said to be undergoing active secretion?

A

if RC > fu x GFR

24
Q

When is a drug said to be undergoing active reabsorption?

A

if RC < fu x GFR

25
Q

How can active renal clearance be determined?

A

By administering blockers of active secretion pathways. (eg probenecid and cimetidine)

26
Q

What does probenecid do?

A

Blocks active secretion of organic anions. Thus it is used to prevent excretion of certain drugs such as penicillin.

27
Q

What does cimetidine do?

A

Blocks active secretion of organic cations.

28
Q

How are drugs excreted via hepato-biliary system?

A

Some drugs undergo direct hepato-biliary excretion. (Can supplement renal excretion or metabolims)

Many drugs form conjugates that are pumped into bile.

These drugs are pumped into bile via mostly SLC transporters in basolateral membranes and pumped into the bile via cannalicular membrane ABC transporters.

29
Q

What is a potential consequence to biliary excretion?

A

Drugs can be deconjugated in the GI tract (via commensal bacteria production fo beta - glucoronidase) and reabsorbed as parent drug which allows drug to be used for longer.

If lipophilic drug can undergo reabsorption from GI-tract back into the liver.

This process complicates the pharmacokinetics of some drugs (eg. morphine)

30
Q

What transporters are located on basolateral side of proximal tubules?

A

SLC transporters (OCT1, OAT2 etc)

31
Q

What transporters are located on luminal side of proximal tubules?

A

ABC transporters

32
Q

What transporters are located on basolateral membrane of hepatocytes?

A

SLC transporters

33
Q

What transporters are located on cannalicular membrane of bile duct?

A

ABC transporters

34
Q

What kind of cells do bile canalicular membranes have?

A

Polarized cells with distinct membranes with distinct patterns of cells.

35
Q

What influences which molecules are transported by canalicular transporters?

A

Molecular mass

36
Q

What kind of molecules do canalicular transporters prefer?

A

Large, polar molecules.

37
Q

What determines whether a compound is excreted via urine vs faeces?

A

How big the molecules is. Larger molecules are excreted via faeces (bile) and smaller molecules via urine.

38
Q

What happens to drug toxicity if bile ducts are blocked?

A

Due to inability to express via the biliary route, drugs that are normally excreted via that route become much more toxic.

39
Q

Formula for total body clearance:

A

CLtot = CLr + CLh + CLother

CLr refers to renally cleared drug (No metabolism)

CLh refers to hepatically cleared drug

CLother refers to other methods of drug clearance

40
Q

What measure indicates renal role in excretion?

A

fe (fraction of drug excreted unchanged)

High fe indicates high renal role in clearance and vice versa for low fe.

41
Q

How is clearance of a drug assessed?

A

Dose/AUC of dose-response curve

42
Q

What does clearance tell us?

A

Volume of blood cleared of drug per unit time. (i.e efficiency of elimination of a drug from the body)

43
Q

What is drug clearance important for?

A

Determining the level of drugs in plasma at steady state. (when rate of drug administration = rate of drug elimination)