Named entity recognition of pharmacokinetic parameters in the scientific literature.

The development of accurate predictions for a new drug's absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion profiles in the early stages of drug development is crucial due to high candidate failure rates. The absence of comprehensive, standardised, and updated pharmacokinetic (PK) repositories limits pre-clinical predictions and often requires searching through the scientific literature for PK parameter estimates from similar compounds. While text mining offers promising advancements in automatic PK parameter extraction, accurate Named Entity Recognition (NER) of PK terms remains a bottleneck due to limited resources.

Population pharmacokinetic modelling of primaquine exposures in lactating women and breastfed infants.

Current guidelines advise against primaquine treatment for breastfeeding mothers to avoid the potential for haemolysis in infants with G6PD deficiency. To predict the haemolytic risk, the amount of drug received from the breast milk and the resulting infant drug exposure need to be characterised. Here, we develop a pharmacokinetic model to describe the drug concentrations in breastfeeding women using venous, capillary, and breast milk data.

A pharmacometric approach to evaluate drugs for potential repurposing as COVID-19 therapeutics.

Introduction: Developing and evaluating novel compounds for treatment or prophylaxis of emerging infectious diseases is costly and time-consuming. Repurposing of already available marketed compounds is an appealing option as they already have an established safety profile. This approach could substantially reduce cost and time required to make effective treatments available to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Need for a Standardized Translational Drug Development Platform: Lessons Learned from the Repurposing of Drugs for COVID-19.

In the absence of drugs to treat or prevent COVID-19, drug repurposing can be a valuable strategy. Despite a substantial number of clinical trials, drug repurposing did not deliver on its promise. While success was observed with some repurposed drugs (e.

Pre-clinical evaluation of antiviral activity of nitazoxanide against SARS-CoV-2.

Background: To address the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, multiple clinical trials in humans were rapidly started, including those involving an oral treatment by nitazoxanide, despite no or limited pre-clinical evidence of antiviral efficacy.

Methods: In this work, we present a complete pre-clinical evaluation of the antiviral activity of nitazoxanide against SARS-CoV-2.

Findings: First, we confirmed the in vitro efficacy of nitazoxanide and tizoxanide (its active metabolite) against SARS-CoV-2.

The Effect of Regularly Dosed Acetaminophen vs No Acetaminophen on Renal Function in Plasmodium knowlesi Malaria (PACKNOW): A Randomized, Controlled Trial.

Background: Acetaminophen inhibits cell-free hemoglobin-induced lipid peroxidation and improves renal function in severe falciparum malaria but has not been evaluated in other infections with prominent hemolysis, including Plasmodium knowlesi malaria.

Methods: PACKNOW was an open-label, randomized, controlled trial of acetaminophen (500 mg or 1000 mg every 6 hours for 72 hours) vs no acetaminophen in Malaysian patients aged ≥5 years with knowlesi malaria of any severity. The primary end point was change in creatinine at 72 hours.

The oral protease inhibitor (PF-07321332) protects Syrian hamsters against infection with SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

There is an urgent need for potent and selective antivirals against SARS-CoV-2. Pfizer developed PF-07321332 (PF-332), a potent inhibitor of the viral main protease (Mpro, 3CLpro) that can be dosed orally and that is in clinical development. We here report that PF-332 exerts equipotent in vitro activity against the four SARS-CoV-2 variants of concerns (VoC) and that it can completely arrest replication of the alpha variant in primary human airway epithelial cells grown at the air-liquid interface.

Semimechanistic Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Modeling of Piperaquine in a Volunteer Infection Study with Plasmodium falciparum Blood-Stage Malaria.

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine is a recommended first-line artemisinin combination therapy for malaria. Piperaquine is also under consideration for other antimalarial combination therapies. The aim of this study was to develop a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic model that might be useful when optimizing the use of piperaquine in new antimalarial combination therapies.

Population Pharmacokinetic Properties of Antituberculosis Drugs in Vietnamese Children with Tuberculous Meningitis.

Optimal dosing of children with tuberculous meningitis (TBM) remains uncertain and is currently based on the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in adults. This study aimed to investigate the population pharmacokinetics of isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol in Vietnamese children with TBM, to propose optimal dosing in these patients, and to determine the relationship between drug exposure and treatment outcome. A total of 100 Vietnamese children with TBM were treated with an 8-month antituberculosis regimen.

Pooled Multicenter Analysis of Cardiovascular Safety and Population Pharmacokinetic Properties of Piperaquine in African Patients with Uncomplicated Falciparum Malaria.

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine has shown excellent efficacy and tolerability in malaria treatment. However, concerns have been raised of potentially harmful cardiotoxic effects associated with piperaquine. The population pharmacokinetics and cardiac effects of piperaquine were evaluated in 1,000 patients, mostly children enrolled in a multicenter trial from 10 sites in Africa.

Modeling the dynamics of gametocytes in humans during malaria infection.

Renewed efforts to eliminate malaria have highlighted the potential to interrupt human-to-mosquito transmission - a process mediated by gametocyte kinetics in human hosts. Here we study the in vivo dynamics of gametocytes by establishing a framework which incorporates improved measurements of parasitemia, a novel gametocyte dynamics model and model fitting using Bayesian hierarchical inference. We found that the model provides an excellent fit to the clinical data from 17 volunteers infected with (3D7 strain) and reliably predicts observed gametocytemia.

Acetaminophen as a Renoprotective Adjunctive Treatment in Patients With Severe and Moderately Severe Falciparum Malaria: A Randomized, Controlled, Open-Label Trial.

Background: Acute kidney injury independently predicts mortality in falciparum malaria. It is unknown whether acetaminophen's capacity to inhibit plasma hemoglobin-mediated oxidation is renoprotective in severe malaria.

Methods: This phase 2, open-label, randomized controlled trial conducted at two hospitals in Bangladesh assessed effects on renal function, safety, pharmacokinetic (PK) properties and pharmacodynamic (PD) effects of acetaminophen.

Population pharmacokinetics and electrocardiographic effects of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine in healthy volunteers.

Aims: The aims of the present study were to evaluate the pharmacokinetic properties of dihydroartemisinin (DHA) and piperaquine, potential drug-drug interactions with concomitant primaquine treatment, and piperaquine effects on the electrocardiogram in healthy volunteers.

Methods: The population pharmacokinetic properties of DHA and piperaquine were assessed in 16 healthy Thai adults using an open-label, randomized, crossover study. Drug concentration-time data and electrocardiographic measurements were evaluated with nonlinear mixed-effects modelling.

Ivermectin susceptibility and sporontocidal effect in Greater Mekong Subregion Anopheles.

Background: Novel vector control methods that can directly target outdoor malaria transmission are urgently needed in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) to accelerate malaria elimination and artemisinin resistance containment efforts. Ivermectin mass drug administration (MDA) to humans has been shown to effectively kill wild Anopheles and suppress malaria transmission in West Africa. Preliminary laboratory investigations were performed to determine ivermectin susceptibility and sporontocidal effect in GMS Anopheles malaria vectors coupled with pharmacokinetic models of ivermectin at escalating doses.

Pharmacokinetic properties of intramuscular versus oral syrup paracetamol in Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Background: Fever is an inherent symptom of malaria in both adults and children. Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is the recommended antipyretic as it is inexpensive, widely available and has a good safety profile, but patients may not be able to take the oral drug reliably. A comparison between the pharmacokinetics of oral syrup and intramuscular paracetamol given to patients with acute falciparum malaria and high body temperature was performed.

Open-label crossover study of primaquine and dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine pharmacokinetics in healthy adult thai subjects.

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine is an artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACT) recommended by the WHO for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria, and it is being used increasingly for resistant vivax malaria where combination with primaquine is required for radical cure. The WHO recently reinforced its recommendations to add a single dose of primaquine to ACTs to reduce P. falciparum transmission in low-transmission settings.

Population pharmacokinetics of nevirapine in Thai HIV-infected patients.

Background: Nevirapine-based antiretroviral therapy is widely used as a first-line treatment for HIV-infected patients in resource-limited settings. Nevirapine plasma concentration has been shown to be associated with virological response and treatment failure. Therefore, identifying sources of the variability of nevirapine pharmacokinetics is important for dose optimization.