Physiologically based modeling of lisofylline pharmacokinetics following intravenous administration in mice

Lisofylline (LSF), is the R-(−) enantiomer of the metabolite M1 of pentoxifylline, and is currently under development for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. The aim of the study was to develop a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model of LSF in mice and to perform simulations in order to predict LSF concentrations in human serum and tissues following intravenous and oral administration. The concentrations of LSF in serum, brain, liver, kidneys, lungs, muscle, and gut were determined at different time points over 60 min by a chiral HPLC method with UV detection following a single intravenous dose of LSF to male CD-1 mice. A PBPK model was developed to describe serum pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of LSF using ADAPT II software. All pharmacokinetic profiles were fitted simultaneously to obtain model parameters. The developed model characterized well LSF disposition in mice. The estimated intrinsic hepatic clearance was 5.427 ml/min and hepatic clearance calculated using the well-stirred model was 1.22 ml/min. The renal clearance of LSF was equal to zero. On scaling the model to humans, a good agreement was found between the predicted by the model and presented in literature serum LSF concentration–time profiles following an intravenous dose of 3 mg/kg. The predicted LSF concentrations in human tissues following oral administration were considerably lower despite the twofold higher dose used and may not be sufficient to exert a pharmacological effect. In conclusion, the mouse is a good model to study LSF pharmacokinetics following intravenous administration. The developed PBPK model may be useful to design future preclinical and clinical studies of this compound

Anti-tumor necrosis factor-Α antibody treatment reduces pulmonary inflammation and methacholine hyper-responsiveness in a murine asthma model induced by house dust

Background/Aims Recent studies documented that sensitization and exposure to cockroach allergens significantly increase children's asthma morbidity as well as severity, especially among inner city children. TNF-Α has been postulated to be a critical mediator directly contributing to the bronchopulmonary inflammation and airway hyper-responsiveness in asthma. This study investigated whether an anti-TNF-Α antibody would inhibit pulmonary inflammation and methacholine (Mch) hyper-responsiveness in a mouse model of asthma induced by a house dust extract containing both endotoxin and cockroach allergens. Methods A house dust sample was extracted with phosphate-buffered saline and then used for immunization and two additional pulmonary challenges of BALB/c mice. Mice were treated with an intravenous injection of anti-TNF-Α antibody or control antibody 1  h before each pulmonary challenge. Results In a kinetic study, TNF-Α levels within the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid increased quickly peaking at 2 h while BAL levels of IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 peaked at later time-points. Mch hyper-responsiveness was measured 24 h after the last challenge, and mice were killed 24 h later. TNF inhibition resulted in an augmentation of these Th2 cytokines. However, the allergic pulmonary inflammation was significantly reduced by anti-TNF-Α antibody treatment as demonstrated by a substantial reduction in the number of BAL eosinophils, lymphocytes, macrophages, and neutrophils compared with rat IgG-treated mice. Mch hyper-responsiveness was also significantly reduced in anti-TNF-Α antibody-treated mice and the pulmonary histology was also significantly improved. Inhibition of TNF significantly reduced eotaxin levels within the lung, suggesting a potential mechanism for the beneficial effects. These data indicate that anti-TNF-Α antibody can reduce the inflammation and pathophysiology of asthma in a murine model of asthma induced by a house dust extract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73609/1/j.1365-2222.2005.02407.x.pd

Oxidative Stress in Wild Boars Naturally and Experimentally Infected with Mycobacterium bovis

Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS-RNS) are important defence substances involved in the immune response against pathogens. An excessive increase in ROS-RNS, however, can damage the organism causing oxidative stress (OS). The organism is able to neutralise OS by the production of antioxidant enzymes (AE); hence, tissue damage is the result of an imbalance between oxidant and antioxidant status. Though some work has been carried out in humans, there is a lack of information about the oxidant/antioxidant status in the presence of tuberculosis (TB) in wild reservoirs. In the Mediterranean Basin, wild boar (Sus scrofa) is the main reservoir of TB. Wild boar showing severe TB have an increased risk to Mycobacterium spp. shedding, leading to pathogen spreading and persistence. If OS is greater in these individuals, oxidant/antioxidant balance in TB-affected boars could be used as a biomarker of disease severity. The present work had a two-fold objective: i) to study the effects of bovine TB on different OS biomarkers (namely superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalasa (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), glutathione reductase (GR) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS)) in wild boar experimentally challenged with Mycobacterium bovis, and ii) to explore the role of body weight, sex, population and season in explaining the observed variability of OS indicators in two populations of free-ranging wild boar where TB is common. For the first objective, a partial least squares regression (PLSR) approach was used whereas, recursive partitioning with regression tree models (RTM) were applied for the second. A negative relationship between antioxidant enzymes and bovine TB (the more severe lesions, the lower the concentration of antioxidant biomarkers) was observed in experimentally infected animals. The final PLSR model retained the GPX, SOD and GR biomarkers and showed that 17.6% of the observed variability of antioxidant capacity was significantly correlated with the PLSR X's component represented by both disease status and the age of boars. In the samples from free-ranging wild boar, however, the environmental factors were more relevant to the observed variability of the OS biomarkers than the TB itself. For each OS biomarker, each RTM was defined as a maximum by one node due to the population effect. Along the same lines, the ad hoc tree regression on boars from the population with a higher prevalence of severe TB confirmed that disease status was not the main factor explaining the observed variability in OS biomarkers. It was concluded that oxidative damage caused by TB is significant, but can only be detected in the absence of environmental variation in wild boar