W24&25 Integrated Pharmacokinetics Flashcards
Pharmacokinetic graph:
Y axis- Conc of drug in the body of plasma
X axis- Time following administration of a single dose
Initially, rate of drug absorption > Rate of drug elimination (a-b)
Then, rate of drug elimination > Rate of drug absorption (c-d)
*refer to ppt to see visual
What is bioavailability (f)?
F= fraction of administered dose of drug which reaches system circulation (intact)
- What is partitioning
- What is pH-partition theory?
- Process of molecules distributing
(partitioning) themselves between two domains - Brings together the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation and partitioning to explain absorption
of drugs
What is a Salt factor?
Considers the fact that the drug may be in the
form of a salt or a prodrug, e.g. an ester
Terminology: area under the curve (AUC)
This is measured to see which drugs have the best/fasted effect.
- AUC: total exposure of the body to a drug over a period of time
- AUC units in this example would be: ug h mL-1
(or ug h/mL-1)
Pharmacokinetics Vs Pharmacodynamics
Pharmacokinetics- What the body does to the drug Pharmacodynamics - What the drug does to the body
Journey of a drug reaching a target site
What are the direct and indirect routes?
Direct: e.g skin, eye, gut, nose, lungs and others
Indirect: via blood, e.g heart, kidney, liver & others
(dilution of dose, tissue deposition, metabolism &
elimination)
What are the considerations for drug administration?
- Parenteral Vs Enteral/Local Vs. Systemic effect
– Drug need to act locally (ointments, creams, eye drops and others)
– Drug’s physical/chemical characteristics suggest to avoid parts of G.I.
tract and/or liver (avoid first pass metabolism, alternative routes like,
inhalation, nasal, sublingual, rectal, skin; inhalation of volatile
anaesthetics)
– Desired drug kinetics, rapid/slow access/ fast or sustained delivery
(insulin formulation, rapid, slow and sustained)
– Ease of administration (paediatrics, geriatrics and immobile patients)
– Adverse/ toxic effects
What is the area between the ineffective range and toxic range of drugs?
The therapeutic range/window
Why is IV the best form of drug administration?
- Drug is delivered rapidly into plasma, and reaches steady-state concentration (i.e remains within therapeutic window for duration of treatment)
Whereas the ADME of other drugs follows a time-dependency
Usual drug pharmacokinetics may not be true if: (3)
*The drug effect is mediated through a metabolite
* The drug effect is irreversible
* Follow different kinetics in the target compartment
(different from blood)
What is the Significance of quantitative pharmacokinetics? (3)
- Dosing regimen: Understand person and conditions specific drug behaviour
- Empirical measures: Handling of drugs by the human body
- Track & trace: Drug disposition in the body (after
administration)
What are the different routes of administration which lead to absorption of a drug? (3)
Intravenous/IV- Blood
Oral- Gut
Intramuscular/IM- Muscle
What is important to consider for drugs reaching the target via blood/plasma (systemic circulation)
The magnitude of drug effect is associated to (drug) available in the plasma/blood
(This is why it is important to create a drug which works in the therapeutic range)
Where do drugs need to be delivered to?
What are the mechanisms of drug delivery?
Gut/mucosal membrane
Passive diffusion and Active diffusion
Why is passive diffusion important in drug delivery?
– Major mechanism of drug delivery
– Depends on the ability of drug (physiochemical characteristics)
crossing lipid bilayer membrane
Rate of diffusion
-surface area
-thickness of membrane
-molecular size & lipid solubility (diffusion constant)
[D] amount transfer
- Transfer rate
- Residence time at
membrane
Why is active diffusion important in drug delivery?
– Require transporter/carrier for the uptake of drug across cell membrane
Low lipid soluble (hydrophilic) drugs use transporters
Organic anion transporters (OATs)
Organic cation transporters (OCTs)
(also covered in urinary system lectures)
How are drugs able to pass through the cell membrane?
Un-ionised (only) drugs will cross lipid bilayers by passive diffusion
What are the factors affecting ionisation?
– pH (i.e. concentration of H+ ions)
– pKa of drug
(pH at which 50% of molecules are in each state)
What are the optimum pH in the Mouth, Stomach and Small Intestine?
Mouth- pH 7.4
Stomach- pH 1.5
Small Intestine- pH 5.3
- The precise degree of ionisation will be determined by the pKa and the exact pH
What are the factors influencing GI absorption?
- G.I. motility
- G.I. secretions & enzymes
- drug-food/supplement interactions
What are the Advantages of G. I absorption (physiological)?
– Large surface area for passive diffusion
– Range of pH environments promote uptake of weak acids/bases
– Richly vascularised (high blood supply)
– Long tract and long dwell time
– Some active transport (e.g. Levodopa taken up by phenylalanine transporter)
– Small intestine is a major site for drug absorption
How is bioavailability measured on a graph?
F= AUC of oral/AUC of I.V (for oral drug)
Time to peak (tmax): time required to reach maximum drug concentration in plasma (is a measure of rate of absorption)
What does the rate of absorption depend on?
Vascularisation of site of absorption
Characteristics of formulation/dosage forms
Lipid solubility of drug
pH of site of absorption
What is the definition of partitioning?
Partitioning is the distribution (or moving) of a substance between two immiscible phases
How is laboratory partitioning behaviour investigated using a separating funnel? (5)
- Immiscible liquids added to separating funnel
- Drug under investigation added to
the mixture - Separating funnel shaken (open tap regularly to release pressure build-up)
- Immiscible phases separated and concentration of drug in each liquid determined
- Partition coefficient is determined from these values
What is the partition coefficient equation (aka distribution coefficient)?
Partition coefficient (P) =Co/Cw
Where: Co is the conc. in the organic phase
Cw is the conc. in the aqueous phase
- P is the measure of relative affinity of the solute for an aqueous and a lipid phase at equilibrium – it will be constant
- Only applies to dilute solutions, i.e. ideal solutions
What is pH partition theory?
pH-partition theory states that the absorption of weak acids and bases is determined by the degree of ionisation, i.e. Henderson-
Hasselbalch equation
What is used as an expression as the range of the partition coefficients of common drugs is quite large?
- Often log10 P is used
- log P gives an indication of the
lipophilicity of a drug
What is the equation for partitioning of weak acids and bases?
P app= [HA]o/ [HA]w
Where is a weak base (drug) more likely to be absorbed?
In the small intestine as the pH is 5.5 and above
Pharmaceutical relevance of Partition theory
- Drugs typically need to pass several lipophilic barriers, e.g. intestinal membrane, cell membranes, blood-brain barrier etc. before they can exert an effect
- Aqueous solubility is also important as the drug molecule is typically required to be in solution for absorption to occur
- Balanced hydrophilic-lipophilic properties are required
- Log P is a useful measure of this balance