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Aims Older patients in particular suffer from adverse drug reactions (ADR) when presenting in the emergency department. We aimed to characterise the phenotype of those ADRs, to be able to recognise an ADR in older patients. Methods Cases of ADRs in emergency departments collected within the multicentre prospective observational study (ADRED) were analysed (n = 2215). We analysed ADR‐associated diagnoses, symptoms and their risk profiles. We present frequencies and odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals for adults (18–64 years) compared to older adults (≥65 years; young–old 65–79, old–old ≥80 years) and regression coefficients (B) for each year of age. Results Most prominent differences were seen for drug‐associated confusion, dehydration, and bradycardia (OR 6.70 [1.59–28.27], B .054; OR 6.02 [2.41–15.03], B .081, and 4.82 [2.21–10.54], B .040), more likely seen in older adults. Bleedings were reported in all age groups, but gastrointestinal bleedings occurred with more than doubled chance in older adults (OR 2.46 [1.77–3.41], B .030), likewise did other bleedings such as haemorrhage from respiratory passages (OR 2.89 [1.37–6.11], B.036). Falls were more likely in older adults (OR 2.84 [1.77–4.53], B .030), while dizziness was frequent in both age groups. Conclusion Our data point to differences in symptoms of ADRs between adults and older individuals, with dangerous drug‐associated phenomena in the older adult such as bleedings or falls. Physicians should consider drug‐associated origins of symptoms in older adults with an increased risk for serious health problems., publishedVersion

Purpose Severe hematotoxicity in patients with thiopurine therapy has been associated with genetic polymorphisms in the thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT). While TPMT genetic testing is clinically implemented for dose individualization, alterations in the nudix hydrolase 15 (NUDT15) emerged as independent determinant of thiopurine-related hematotoxicity. Because data for European patients are limited, we investigated the relevance of NUDT15 in Europeans. Methods Additionally to TPMT phenotyping/genotyping, we performed in-depth Sanger sequencing analyses of NUDT15 coding region in 107 European patients who developed severe thiopurine-related hematotoxicity as extreme phenotype. Moreover, genotyping for NUDT15 variants in 689 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients was performed. Results As expected TPMT was the main cause of severe hematotoxicity in 31% of patients, who were either TPMT deficient (10%) or heterozygous carriers of TPMT variants (21%). By comparison, NUDT15 genetic polymorphism was identified in 14 (13%) patients including one novel variant (p.Met1Ile). Six percent of patients with severe toxicity carried variants in both TPMT and NUDT15. Among patients who developed toxicity within 3 months of treatment, 13% were found to be carriers of NUDT15 variants. Conclusion Taken together, NUDT15 and TPMT genetics explain ~50% of severe thiopurine-related hematotoxicity, providing a compelling rationale for additional preemptive testing of NUDT15 genetics not only in Asians, but also in Europeans.

Long-term treatment with 6-thioguanine (6-TG) for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is associated with high rates of hepatic sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS). Nevertheless, current treatment continues to use short-term applications of 6-TG with only sparse information on toxicity. 6-TG is metabolized by thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) which underlies clinically relevant genetic polymorphism. We analyzed the association between hepatic SOS reported as a serious adverse event (SAE) and short-term 6-TG application in 3983 pediatric ALL patients treated on trial AIEOP-BFM ALL 2000 (derivation cohort) and defined the role of TPMT genotype in this relationship. We identified 17 patients (0.43%) with hepatic SOS, 13 of which with short-term exposure to 6-TG (P TPMT variants, resulting in a 22.4-fold (95% confidence interval 7.1–70.7; P ≤ 0.0001) increased risk of hepatic SOS for heterozygotes in comparison to TPMT wild-type patients. Results were supported by independent replication analysis. All patients with hepatic SOS after short-term 6-TG recovered and did not demonstrate residual symptoms. Thus, hepatic SOS is associated with short-term exposure to 6-TG during treatment of pediatric ALL and SOS risk is increased for patients with low-activity TPMT genotypes.

Adverse drug reactions (ADR) account for 5 to 7% of emergency department (ED) consultations. We aimed to assess medication risk profiles for ADRs leading to ED visits. We analysed medication intake and patient demographics in a prospective multi-centre observational study collecting ADR cases in four large EDs in Germany. Odds ratios (OR) were calculated to relate drug classes taken to those suspicious for an ADR after a causality assessment. A total of 2215 cases of ED visits due to ADRs were collected. The median age of the cohort was 73 years; in median, six co-morbidities and an intake of seven drugs were documented. Antineoplastic/immunomodulating agents had the highest OR for being suspected for an ADR (OR 20.45, 95% CI 14.54–28.77), followed by antithrombotics (OR 2.94, 95% CI 2.49–3.47), antibiotics (OR 2.65, 95% CI 1.78–3.95), systemic glucocorticoids (OR 2.43, 95% CI 1.54–3.82) and drugs affecting the central nervous system (CNS), such as antipsychotics (OR 2.36, 95% CI 1.46–3.81), antidepressants (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.57–2.83), antiparkinsonian medication (OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.15–3.84), opioids (OR 1.79, 95% CI 1.26–2.54) and non-opioid analgesics (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.01–1.72). Patients experiencing ADRs leading to ED visits are commonly old, multi-morbid and multi-medicated. CNS drugs may be more relevant than prior expected. With calculating ORs, we could replicate involvement of antineoplastic agents, antithrombotics, antibiotics, systemic glucocorticoids and non-opioid analgesics as frequently suspected for ADRs in EDs. DRKS-ID: DRKS00008979.

People with a first-degree relative with colorectal cancer (CRC) are recommended to start CRC screening at age 40. However, there is limited information on how many people in different age groups have a known family history of CRC and how many of them have had a colonoscopy.We set up a multicenter, cross-sectional, population-based study in Germany to determine what proportions of persons in age groups from 40 to 54 years old have a known family history of CRC. We invited 160,000 persons to participate in an online survey from 2015 through 2016. We investigated what proportions of persons in each age group reported a family history of CRC and what proportions of persons underwent a colonoscopy examination using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression models.Of 28,711 responders to the online questionnaire (8428 were age 40-44 years, 9879 were age 45-49 years, and 10,404 were age 50-54 years), 2705 stated that they had a first-degree relative with CRC (9.4%). The prevalence of a first-degree relative with CRC increased with age: 7.5%, 9.6%, and 10.9% for people 40 to 44 years old, 45 to 49 years old, and 50 to 54 years old, respectively. The prevalence of a first-degree relative who received a diagnosis of CRC at age 70 years or older increased steadily with each age group. Although a greater proportion of people with a family history of CRC had undergone a colonoscopy examination (54.5%) than people without a family history of CRC (25.7%; P .0001), large proportions of people within this risk group were not in compliance with the guidelines (54.8%, 47.6%, and 38.6% for ages 40-44 y, 45-49 y, and 50-54 y, respectively).One in 10 persons in Germany age 40 to 54 years old has a first-degree relative with CRC. Guidelines recommend initiation of screening at ages 40 to 45 years for people with a family history, yet at this age many people do not have a family history of CRC yet, and almost half of persons 40 to 54 years old with a family history of CRC have not yet received a screening colonoscopy.

Background People aged 40–60 years with a family history (FH) of colorectal cancer (CRC) in 1st degree relatives (FDRs) have a 2- to 4-fold increased risk of CRC compared to the average risk population. Therefore, experts recommend starting CRC screening earlier for this high-risk group. However, information on prevalence of relevant colonoscopic findings in this group is sparse, and no risk adapted screening offers are implemented in the German health care system. For example, screening colonoscopy is uniformly offered from age 55 on, regardless of family history. Thus, we initiated a multicenter epidemiological study - the RaPS study (Risk adapted prevention strategies for colorectal cancer) – with the following aims: to determine the prevalence of having a FH of CRC in FDR in the German population aged 40–54 years; to investigate the prevalence of colorectal neoplasms among people with a FDR; and to develop risk-adapted prevention strategies for this high-risk group based on the collected information. Methods/Design A random sample of 160.000 persons from the general population aged 40–54 years from the catchment areas of three study centers in Germany (Dresden, Munich and Stuttgart) are contacted to assess FH of CRC by an online-questionnaire. Those with a FH of CRC in FDRs are invited to the study centers for individual consultation regarding CRC prevention. Participants are asked to donate blood and stool samples and medical records of colonoscopies will be obtained. Prevalence of CRC and its precursors will be evaluated. Furthermore, genetic, epigenetic and proteomic biomarkers in blood and microbiomic biomarkers in stool will be investigated. Risk markers and their eligibility for risk adapted screening offers will be examined. Discussion This study will provide data on the prevalence of colorectal neoplasms among persons with a FH of CRC in the age group 40–54 years, which will enable us to derive evidence based screening strategies for this high-risk group. Trial registration This trial was registered retrospectively in the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS) on 29th of December 2016: German Clinical Trials Register DRKS-ID: DRKS00007842.

Early indication of late-stage failure of novel candidate drugs could be facilitated by continuous integration, assessment, and transfer of knowledge acquired along pharmaceutical development programs. We here present a translational systems pharmacology workflow that combines drug cocktail probing in a specifically designed clinical study, physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling, and Bayesian statistics to identify and transfer (patho-)physiological and drug-specific knowledge across distinct patient populations. Our work builds on two clinical investigations, one with 103 healthy volunteers and one with 79 diseased patients from which we systematically derived physiological information from pharmacokinetic data for a reference probe drug (midazolam) at the single-patient level. Taking into account the acquired knowledge describing (patho-)physiological alterations in the patient cohort allowed the successful prediction of the population pharmacokinetics of a second, candidate probe drug (torsemide) in the patient population. In addition, we identified significant relations of the acquired physiological processes to patient metadata from liver biopsies. The presented prototypical systems pharmacology approach is a proof of concept for model-based translation across different stages of pharmaceutical development programs. Applied consistently, it has the potential to systematically improve predictivity of pharmacokinetic simulations by incorporating the results of clinical trials and translating them to subsequent studies., Systems pharmacology: predicting population pharmacokinetics in silico Physiologically based modeling together with Bayesian statistics allows the prediction of drug pharmacokinetics in specific patient populations. An interdisciplinary group of clinicians and computational scientists led by Dr. Lars Kuepfer from Bayer developed a generic workflow consisting of several consecutive learning steps where knowledge about both individual physiology as well as drug physicochemistry can be efficiently derived from plasma concentration profiles. The acquired information is then be used for the prediction of the pharmacokinetic behavior of a new drug candidate in a diseased population. This allows to simulate the variability in drug exposure virtually before starting clinical investigation in real patients in order to evaluate drug safety or efficacy through the simulation of virtual populations. Further development of this workflow could improve the safety of clinical development programs to assess the risk-benefit ratio of novel drug candidates in silico.

Clomiphene citrate is the most used drug for the treatment of female infertility, a common condition in western societies and developing countries. Despite dose escalation, up to 30% of women do not respond. Since clomiphene shares structural similarities with tamoxifen, which is predominantly bioactivated by the polymorphic cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6, we systematically explored clomiphene metabolism and action in vitro and in vivo by pharmacogenetic, -kinetic and -dynamic investigations. Human liver microsomes were incubated with clomiphene citrate and nine metabolites were identified by mass spectrometry and tested at the oestrogen receptor for their antagonistic capacity. (E)-4-hydroxyclomiphene and (E)-4-hydroxy-N-desethylclomiphene showed strongest inhibition of the oestrogen receptor activity with 50% inhibitory concentrations of 2.5 and 1.4 nm, respectively. CYP2D6 has been identified as the major enzyme involved in their formation using recombinant CYP450 isozymes as confirmed by inhibition experiments with CYP monoclonal antibodies. We correlated the CYP2D6 genotype of 30 human liver donors with the microsomal formation rate of active metabolites and observed a strong gene-dose effect. A healthy female volunteer study confirmed our in vitro data that the CYP2D6 polymorphism substantially determines the formation of the active clomiphene metabolites. Comparison of the C(max) of (E)-4-hydroxyclomiphene and (E)-4-hydroxy-N-desethylclomiphene showed 8 and 12 times lower concentrations in subjects with non-functional CYP2D6 alleles. Our results highlight (E)-4-hydroxyclomiphene and (E)-4-hydroxy-N-desethylclomiphene as the active clomiphene metabolites, the formation of which strongly depends on the polymorphic CYP2D6 enzyme. Our data provide first evidence of a biological rationale for the variability in the response to clomiphene treatment.

The impact of thyroid dysfunction on the regulation, expression, and function of ABCB1 remains unclear. We therefore investigated ABCB1 mRNA expression and function in patients with thyroid dysfunction and studied the disposition of the ABCB1 substrate digoxin before and after treatment for thyroid disease. In patients with hypothyroidism, normalization of thyroid function was associated with a 1.8-fold increase in mRNA expression and a 26% increase in rhodamine efflux from CD56+ cells. In hypothyroidism, digoxin clearance was significantly decreased, whereas bioavailability, volume of distribution, half-life time, and protein binding were unaltered. In hyperthyroidism, ABCB1 mRNA expression, rhodamine efflux, and disposition of digoxin were not significantly affected other than in relation to renal clearance. Experiments using the LS174T cell line indicated that the gene is a direct target of thyroid hormone receptors. In conclusion, thyroid abnormalities can exert significant effects on the expression of P-glycoprotein, thereby altering the disposition and action of drugs that are substrates of P-glycoprotein. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2010) 88 5, 685–694. doi: 10.1038/clpt.2010.176

We studied the efficacy of propafenone in preventing atrial tachyarrhythmias after cardiac surgery, and the possible relationships between CYP2D6 polymorphism and the efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and tolerability of propafenone. One hundred and sixty patients were randomized (double blind) to receive propafenone (n= 78) or placebo (n= 82) for 1 week after cardiac surgery. The patients who were assigned to the propafenone group received 1 mg/kg infused in 1 h, followed by a continuous infusion at a rate of 4 mg/kg/24 h until the following morning, and subsequently 450 mg/day orally until the sixth postoperative day. Thirty-seven patients completed the trial in the propafenone group and 45 in the placebo group. The frequency of occurrence of atrial tachyarrhythmia was lower in the propafenone group than in the placebo group (29.7% vs. 53.3%, P< 0.05; relative risk, 0.56). Plasma propafenone concentrations were markedly influenced by CYP2D6 genotype-derived phenotype.

Homocysteine is a precursor of S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) and a metabolite of S-adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy). The ratio of AdoMet to AdoHcy, defined as the methylation potential (MP), indicates the flow of methyl groups within the cells. Chronic elevations of total homocysteine (tHcy) in plasma correlate with increased AdoHcy concentrations, decreased MP, and impaired DNA methylation. However, the influence of acute hyperhomocysteinemia on MP is unknown. We induced acute hyperhomocysteinemia in 14 healthy volunteers by oral administration of l-homocysteine (65.1 μmol/kg body wt) in an open, randomized, placebo-controlled two-period crossover study. The kinetics of tHcy in blood and urine, MP in blood, and global DNA methylation in lymphocytes were studied systematically during 48 h. Plasma tHcy concentrations reached a peak at 34 ± 11 min after an oral load with l-homocysteine and decreased with a half-life of 257 ± 41 min (means ± SD). Only 2.3% of the homocysteine dose were recovered in urine. AdoHcy concentrations and MP in whole blood and erythrocytes were not affected by the oral homocysteine load. Furthermore, global DNA methylation in lymphocytes did not change under these conditions. We found no difference between the genotypes of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase in response to the homocysteine load. However, AdoMet content in erythrocytes was significantly higher in the C677T carriers (CT; n = 7) compared with the CC genotype ( n = 7). Although chronic elevation of tHcy has been shown to affect MP and DNA methylation, acute elevation of plasma tHcy above 20 μmol/l for 8 h is not sufficient to change MP and to induce DNA hypomethylation in lymphocytes.

The expression and function of the drug transporter P-glycoprotein are highly variable. Environmental and genetic factors contribute to this variation. We studied the disposition of digoxin, a frequently used probe drug for P-glycoprotein function in humans, in monozygotic (MZ) twins and found that digoxin pharmacokinetics after oral and intravenous administration are highly correlated within MZ twins, supporting the hypothesis of a robust contribution from genetic variance. Our study suggests that studies involving twins could be more widely applied to elucidate pharmacogenetics.

The contribution of transport in the small intestine by the apically located efflux pump P-glycoprotein to variable drug absorption in humans is still poorly understood. We therefore investigated whether inhibition of intestinal P-glycoprotein-mediated efflux by quinidine leads to increased absorption of the P-glycoprotein substrate digoxin. Using a multilumen perfusion catheter, we investigated the impact of P-glycoprotein inhibition on absorption of two compounds: the P-glycoprotein substrate digoxin and the marker for passive transcellular absorption antipyrine. Two 20cm adjacent jejunal segments were isolated with the multilumen perfusion catheter in seven healthy subjects. Unlabelled and deuterated digoxin and antipyrine, respectively, were simultaneously infused into either of the intestinal segments. One of the segments was additionally perfused with the P-glycoprotein inhibitor quinidine. Intestinal perfusates were collected for 3 hours, and drug concentrations were determined in the intestinal perfusates, plasma and urine. Quinidine did not affect the disposition of antipyrine. In contrast, coadministration of quinidine into one jejunal segment caused a considerable increase in the amount of digoxin absorbed from this segment compared with the absorption from the other quinidine-free segment (22.3 ± 8.9% vs 55.8 ± 21.2% of the dose; p < 0.05). Accordingly, the area under the plasma concentration-time curve and the maximum plasma concentration of digoxin were considerably higher when luminal quinidine was coadministered (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively). Differences in digoxin absorption from the two intestinal segments were also reflected by pronounced differences in urinary digoxin elimination (5.5 ± 3.3% vs 19.2 ± 8.1% of the dose; p < 0.01). P-glycoprotein inhibition in enterocytes increases systemic exposure of orally administered drugs that are P-glycoprotein substrates. These data highlight the importance of the small intestine as an active barrier against xenobiotics.