British journal of clinical pharmacology
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Br J Clin Pharmacol · Nov 2017
A physiologically based pharmacokinetic modelling approach to predict buprenorphine pharmacokinetics following intravenous and sublingual administration.
Opioid dependence is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Buprenorphine (BUP) is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat opioid dependence. There is a lack of clear consensus on the appropriate dosing of BUP due to interpatient physiological differences in absorption/disposition, subjective response assessment and other patient comorbidities. The objective of the present study was to build and validate robust physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models for intravenous (IV) and sublingual (SL) BUP as a first step to optimizing BUP pharmacotherapy. ⋯ The validated PBPK models will be used in future studies to predict BUP plasma and brain concentrations based on the varying demographic, physiological and pathological characteristics of patients.