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Pantoprazole is a proton pump inhibitor indicated for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease, a condition that disproportionately affects children with obesity. Appropriately dosing pantoprazole in children with obesity requires understanding the body size metric that best guides dosing, but pharmacokinetic (PK) trials using traditional techniques are limited by the need for larger sample sizes and frequent blood sampling. Physiologically-based PK (PBPK) models are an attractive alternative that can account for physiologic-, genetic-, and drug-specific changes without the need for extensive clinical trial data. In this study, we explored the effect of obesity on pantoprazole PK and evaluated label-suggested dosing in this population. An adult PBPK model for pantoprazole was developed using data from the literature and accounting for genetic variation in CYP2C19. The adult PBPK model was scaled to children without obesity using age-associated changes in anatomical and physiological parameters. Lastly, the pediatric PBPK model was expanded to children with obesity. Three pantoprazole dosing strategies were evaluated: 1 mg/kg total body weight, 1.2 mg/kg lean body weight, and US Food and Drug Administration-recommended weight-tiered dosing. Simulated concentration-time profiles from our model were compared with data from a prospective cohort study (PAN01; NCT02186652). Weight-tiered dosing resulted in the most (>90%) children with pantoprazole exposures in the reference range, regardless of obesity status or CYP2C19 phenotype, confirming results from previously published population PK models. PBPK models may allow for the efficient study of physiologic and developmental effects of obesity on PK in special populations where clinical trial data may be limited., (© 2024 The Author(s). CPT: Pharmacometrics & Systems Pharmacology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.)

Children with asthma and obesity are more likely to have lower vitamin D levels, but the optimal replacement dose is unknown in this population. The objective of this study is identifying a vitamin D dose in children with obesity-related asthma that safely achieves serum vitamin D levels of ≥ 40 ng/mL. This prospective multisite randomized controlled trial recruited children/adolescents with asthma and body mass index ≥ 85% for age/sex. Part 1 (dose finding), evaluated 4 oral vitamin D regimens for 16 weeks to identify a replacement dose that achieved serum vitamin D levels ≥ 40 ng/mL. Part 2 compared the replacement dose calculated from part 1 (50,000 IU loading dose with 8,000 IU daily) to standard of care (SOC) for 16 weeks to identify the proportion of children achieving target serum 25(OH)D level. Part 1 included 48 randomized participants. Part 2 included 64 participants. In Part 1, no SOC participants achieved target serum level, but 50-72.7% of participants in cohorts A-C achieved the target serum level. In part 2, 78.6% of replacement dose participants achieved target serum level compared with none in the SOC arm. No related serious adverse events were reported. This trial confirmed a 50,000 IU loading dose plus 8,000 IU daily oral vitamin D as safe and effective in increasing serum 25(OH)D levels in children/adolescents with overweight/obesity to levels ≥ 40 ng/mL. Given the critical role of vitamin D in many conditions complicating childhood obesity, these data close a critical gap in our understanding of vitamin D dosing in children., (© 2023 The Authors. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.)

Acetaminophen protein adducts (adducts) are a well-established biomarker to diagnose acetaminophen toxicity. To date, the quantitative relationship between acetaminophen exposure, which drives adduct formation, and adduct exposure remains to be established. Our study characterized the adduct formation and disposition in adults using the approach of population parent-metabolite modeling. It demonstrated formation-limited pharmacokinetics (PK) for adducts in healthy subjects. This finding expands the existing knowledge on adduct PK that showed an apparent long elimination half-life. We then allometrically scaled the adduct PK model to children, simulated the adduct profiles, and compared these simulated profiles with those observed in an independent cohort of children. The scaled model significantly overpredicted the adduct concentrations in children early on in treatment and underpredicted concentrations following repeated acetaminophen doses. These results suggest that children demonstrate different adduct PK behavior from that of adults, most likely because of increased reactive metabolite detoxification in children. In summary, we described the first PK model linking acetaminophen and acetaminophen protein adduct concentrations, which provides a semimechanistic understanding of varying profiles of adduct exposure in adults and children., (© 2019, The American College of Clinical Pharmacology.)

Several cytokines have been reported to have hepatoprotective properties in animal models of acetaminophen toxicity. To investigate the relationships of cytokines and toxicity in acetaminophen overdose, blood samples were collected from patients following acute ingestions of acetaminophen. Samples for cytokine analysis were collected at the time of routine clinical monitoring in 111 patients (90 females; mean age 13.6 years). Plasma concentrations of interleukin 6, interleukin 8, interleukin 10, and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Patients were stratified by toxicity severity, defined by the maximal values of hepatic transaminase elevation. Levels of interleukin 6, interleukin 8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 were higher in patients with serum alanine aminotransferase > 1000 IU/L, and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 had the strongest association with toxicity. Monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 values were higher in patients with greater delays in N-acetylcysteine treatment and in patients with higher values of prothrombin time. Monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 elevation in acetaminophen overdose may represent an innate, immunomodulary response of the liver to earlier events in the toxicity. An understanding of the role of cytokine responses in acetaminophen overdose may be relevant to the future development of new therapies for acetaminophen toxicity.

Unlabelled: Omeprazole is frequently used to treat gastroesophageal reflux in infants and children despite the lack of age-specific pharmacokinetic and dosing information in the approved product labeling. To address this challenge, the authors examined the potential influence of development and cytochrome P450 2C19 (CYP2C19) genotype on omeprazole disposition by conducting two pharmacokinetic (PK) studies in children and adolescents (ages 2-16 years) after a single oral 10- or 20-mg dose of the drug. Plasma omeprazole concentrations were determined by HPLC-MS from seven plasma samples obtained over a 6-hour postdose period. Pharmacokinetic parameters were determined by noncompartmental methods. Subjects were genotyped for CYP2C19 by PCR-RFLP. Data were available from 37 patients (19 female), 10 of whom were < or = 5 years of age. No drug-associated adverse events were observed. The numbers of functional CYP2C19 alleles per subject in the cohort were 2 (n = 25), 1 (n = 11), and 0 (n = 1). Pharmacokinetic parameters (mean +/- SD, range) were as follows: tmax (2.1 +/- 1.2, 1-6 h), Cmax (331.1 +/- 333.6, 20.8-885.8 ng/mL), AUC0-->infinity (809.5 +/- 893.8, 236.9-1330.9 ng/mL.h), t1/2 (0.98 +/- 0.22, 0.7-1.4 h), and CL/F (1.8 +/- 1.4, 0.3-5.8 L/h/kg). Comparison of mean AUC0-->infinity values normalized for dose (i.e., per 1 mg/kg) between subjects with one versus two functional CYP2C19 alleles revealed no statistically significant difference. In addition, the CL/F and apparent elimination rate constant (lambda z) for omeprazole were not significantly different for subjects with one versus two functional CYP2C19 alleles. No association between age and CL/F, t1/2, or lambda z was observed. The range of t1/2 values for omeprazole was similar to those reported in adults (1-1.5 h)., Conclusions: (1) in children ages 2 to 16 years receiving 10 or 20 mg of omeprazole as a single oral dose, the PK are quite comparable to values reported for adults, and (2) in pediatric patients who are CYP2C19 extensive metabolizers, there was no association between genotype and the pharmacokinetics of omeprazole.