Development of a PBPK Model for Lamotrigine which Incorporates Metabolism by UGT2B10: Impact of UGT2B10 Poor Metabolizer Phenotype and Pregnancy.

An updated physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model was developed for lamotrigine by incorporating a component of metabolism due to a UDP-glucuronyltransferase (UGT) 2B isozyme. This was assigned to UGT2B10 based on recent in vitro data in our laboratory demonstrating metabolism of lamotrigine by this isozyme (Tang et al. AAPS J 26:107, 2024). The PBPK model developed in this work was able to reasonably recapitulate the exposure of lamotrigine after single (IV and Oral) and multiple (Oral) doses. The predicted/observed maximal plasma concentration (C _max ) ratio ranged from 0.8 to 1.4 across all simulated studies and for 16 out of 18 simulated studies was between 0.8 and 1.25. Similarly, the predicted/observed area under the curve (AUC) ratio ranged from 0.6 to 1.44 across all simulated studies and for 18 out of 26 of the simulated studies the ratio was between 0.8 and 1.25. There was a slight tendency to overpredict the lamotrigine AUC on multiple dosing. The median predicted fraction metabolised (fm) by UGT2B10 in the model was 60%. With this fm value, the in vivo clinical DDI between lamotrigine and valproate was reasonably recapitulated considering only UGT2B10 inhibition (Predicted/Observed AUC ratios ranged from 0.65 - 1.2). Information on the prevalence of UGT2B10 poor metabolizer phenotypes and longitudinal changes in UGT1A4 and UGT2B10 expression during pregnancy were incorporated into the PBPK model and the plasma concentrations in subjects with different UGT2B10 phenotypes and in different trimesters of pregnancy were simulated. The simulated concentrations in pregnant subjects were in line with those reported during pregnancy.
Competing Interests: Declarations. Conflict of Interest: IG and ATH are employees of Certara Predictive Technologies and may own Certara Stock. LWTT, KL and TCG are employees of Pfizer Inc., New York, NY, USA and may own shares/stock options in Pfizer Inc., New York, NY, USA.
(© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.)