Video summary
Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics Principles and P K Models
Main summary
Key takeaways
Main ideas, concepts, and lessons
-
Purpose of the lecture (biopharmaceutics + pharmacokinetics)
- Biopharmaceutics: how the body behaves after administering a drug to an individual.
- Focuses on biological parameters affecting:
- drug stay time
- elimination
- absorption
- and how modifying drug parameters can help manage these effects.
- Goal across lectures: connect biological parameters with pharmaceutical parameters to design a bioavailable, safe, efficacious drug delivery system.
- Learning objectives:
- Understand principles of biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics
- Review pharmacokinetic (PK) models
- Understand how drugs are disposed of in different PK models
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Definition of biopharmaceutics
- Study of interrelationships among:
- physicochemical properties
- physiological properties
- pharmaceutical properties
- of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and the dosage form
- Used to predict bioavailability, absorption, distribution, and elimination based on biological performance.
- Study of interrelationships among:
Key factors discussed in biopharmaceutics (what controls drug performance)
1) API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) properties
- Solubility
- Particle size
- Porosity
- Density
- Volume
- Impurities
- Tendency to form complexes
2) Drug product / formulation considerations
- Choose the type of drug product appropriate to the route of delivery:
- Examples mentioned for achieving maximum bioavailability:
- capsule
- tablet
- solution
- Examples mentioned for achieving maximum bioavailability:
- Choose and optimize:
- Immediate or modified release design
- manufacturing variables
- excipients
3) Physiological factors
- Route of administration
- Permeability across cell membranes
- Binding to proteins
- Blood flow
- Surface area
- Biotransformation (metabolism)
- Pharmacokinetics
4) Pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic considerations
- Bioavailability
- Therapeutic objective
- Side effects
- Dose-related side effects
- Toxic effects
5) Manufacturing and quality control
- Decide production methodology and quality control
- Evaluate formulation aspects tied to biopharmaceutical properties
- Example: particle size to support good solubility
- Better solubility → expected higher absorption vs poor aqueous solubility
- Consider:
- raw material quality/specifications
- processing
- cost
- stability (important for shelf life)
6) Patient considerations and patient compliance
- Compliance with taking the drug
- Example: injectables described as less patient-compliant
- Alternative suggested: oral or liquid dosage forms (self-administrable)
7) Labeling and product info
- Label should provide necessary steps/precautions
- Include:
- how to take the drug
- cost of dosage form (mentioned as a consideration)
LADMER framework (biopharmaceutical + PK sequence)
- LADMER stands for:
- Liberation
- Absorption
- Distribution
- Metabolism (biotransformation)
- Excretion
- Then R = assessment of therapeutic response
- Core concept:
- The drug must be liberated first from the dosage form at the desired site,
- then it proceeds through absorption → distribution → metabolism → excretion.
Detailed absorption concepts and mechanisms
Dissolution and release factors (before absorption)
- Stability in the drug product
- Rate of drug release
- Rate of dissolution inside the body
- impacts absorption rate
- determines availability at the site of action
Solid oral dosage form stages (example: tablets)
For tablets, the drug must progress through stages:
- tablet → disintegrates into granules
- granules → disintegrate into fine powders
- dissolution occurs during these stages
Dissolution produces a solubilized form of drug:
- can be micellar or simple solution
Key takeaway: only unionized (non-ionized) drug is absorbed Ionized drugs may have higher solubility but are not absorbed effectively.
Absorption occurs through barriers such as:
- GI barrier
- mucosal lining
Mechanisms of absorption
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Passive diffusion (non-ionic diffusion)
- Driven by:
- concentration gradient / electrochemical gradient
- No energy required
- Governed by a diffusion-gradient relationship (conceptually proportional to drug concentration gradient between GI and plasma)
- Driven by:
-
Carrier-mediated transport
- Requires membrane carriers
- Carrier must bind drug reversibly
- Capacity-limited (depends on number of carriers)
- Site-specific and structure-specific
- Transported for hydrophilic drugs/ions/nutrients
Types within carrier-mediated transport
- **Facilitated diffusion**
- **Downhill** transport via passive mechanism
- **No energy**
- **Competitive kinetics**
- Example: **vitamin B12 absorption** via intrinsic factor
- **Active transport**
- **Uphill** transport against concentration gradient
- Requires energy
- Carrier-drug complex shuttles drug across, releases it, and returns
- Used for biliary/renal secretion
- Examples given:
- **levodopa and methyl dopa** via **L-amino acid transporter**
- **enalapril** via **peptide transporter**
- **5-fluorouracil** via **pyrimidine transporter**
- Also **capacity-limited and saturable**
-
Intestinal transporter / efflux & influx
- Transporters in intestinal brush border and basolateral membrane:
- P-glycoprotein (P-gp)
- amino acid transporters
- Can reduce permeability for many lipophilic/cytotoxic drugs
- Example:
- oral cephalosporins via amino acid transporters
- P-gp efflux
- beneficial: helps avoid toxic drug retention
- harmful: reduces bioavailability for drugs that need absorption
- Transporters in intestinal brush border and basolateral membrane:
-
Vesicular transport (endocytosis)
- Cell engulfs material via:
- phagocytosis (large particles/macromolecules)
- pinocytosis (small solutes/fluids)
- Example:
- polio vaccine transported; large proteins also mentioned
- Cell engulfs material via:
The lecture also references broader categories such as:
- transcellular passive
- paracellular passive
- efflux/influx mechanisms
- carrier-mediated transport
- endocytosis
- transcytosis
Distribution concepts (what happens after absorption)
- Distribution = reversible transfer between blood and extravascular fluids/tissues
- Purpose: move drug from absorption site to site of action
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Depends heavily on drug’s physiological nature and absorption, plus:
- Volume of distribution (Vd):
- Hypothetical volume representing distribution extent
- calculated as: dose / plasma concentration
- Volume of distribution (Vd):
-
Vd depends on:
- blood flow rate
- lipid solubility
- tissue partition coefficient
- binding to biological materials
-
Patient factors influencing Vd:
- body weight, obesity, edema
Examples
- Hydrophilic drugs: lower Vd in obese patients (less partitioning into fatty tissues)
- Edema: affects Vd due to water accumulation
Special distribution limitations
- Blood flow is rate-limiting
- CNS distribution limited by blood-brain barrier (BBB)
- depends on:
- ionization in plasma
- lipid solubility
- lipid-soluble drugs cross readily (example: thiopental)
- polar compounds may have poor brain bioavailability (example: barbital)
- depends on:
- Placental distribution
- interest increased due to teratogenic risks (example context: thalidomide)
- Protein binding
- drug binds plasma proteins reversibly
- only unbound drug is available for action
- high protein binding can complicate bioavailability and dosing
- examples of acid/base interactions:
- basic amino acids (arginine, histidine, lysine) bind acidic drugs
- acidic amino acids (aspartic, glutamic, tyrosine) bind basic drugs
Biotransformation (metabolism) concepts
- Biotransformation = chemical conversion of drug into other compounds
- Usually mediated by enzymes in tissues/biofluids:
- non-enzymatic or mixed pathways also occur
- Types of transformation:
- catabolic: hydrolysis, reduction, oxidation
- anabolic (conjugation): glucuronic acid, glycine, sulfate
- Results:
- formation of new chemical entities
- their distribution/excretion can differ from the parent compound
- Two phases:
- Phase 1: oxidative/reductive/hydrolytic reactions
- Phase 2: conjugation reactions (glucuronidation, sulfation, methylation, acetylation)
- Mentioned sites of metabolism:
- microsomes, cytosol, blood, lysosomes, microflora, mitochondria
First-pass effect
- First-pass metabolism (pre-systemic clearance):
- drug is metabolized before reaching systemic circulation
- primarily via liver first-pass metabolism
- Result:
- reduced availability of parent drug
- therefore poor bioavailability for some drugs
Excretion and elimination concepts
Routes of excretion
- Excretion = final loss from the body
- Routes mentioned:
- urine, bile, intestine, saliva, alveolar air, sweat, milk
- Prominent pathways:
- kidney → urine
- liver → feces
Renal excretion mechanisms
- Glomerular filtration
- Tubular reabsorption
- Tubular secretion
- Governing processes can be:
- passive diffusion
- carrier-mediated mechanisms
- Key quantitative ideas:
- glomerular filtration rate (GFR) dependence on:
- unbound drug concentration
- GFR
- glomerular filtration rate (GFR) dependence on:
- Renal clearance affects:
- plasma half-life
- elimination rate constant
- fractions metabolized/renally eliminated
Enterohepatic circulation
- Includes:
- biliary excretion and hepatic metabolism
- Biliary recycling:
- drug secreted into bile
- stored in gallbladder
- released into duodenum
- may be metabolized, reabsorbed, and re-secreted
- “Entrohepatic cycle” described as a complete liver + bile pathway cycle.
Other excretion mechanisms
- Lung: volatile/gaseous substances (breath analysis example for alcohol)
- Salivary recycling:
- pH-dependent; influenced by protein binding
- Mammary excretion (milk):
- important to avoid drug exposure to infant
- depends on passive diffusion and ionization
- pH: milk ~ 6.6, plasma ~ 7.4
- milk-plasma ratio higher for weak bases, lower for weak acids
Pharmacokinetic (PK) modeling concepts
What pharmacokinetics is
- Pharmacon = drug
- Kinesis = motion/rate change
- Defines the time course of drug/metabolite concentration
Types of PK models mentioned
- Compartment modeling
- Non-compartment modeling
- Physiological modeling
Compartment models (structure and use)
- A PK model is a hypothetical structure to categorize reproducibility of drug fate/behavior given route and dosage form.
- Compartment counts:
- one-compartment
- two-compartment
- multi-compartment
- Fit data using:
- blood concentration vs time
- urinary cumulative excretion vs time
Model arrangement types
- Mammillary model
- central compartment (plasma; highly perfused tissues like lung/liver/kidney)
- peripheral compartments (low vascularity/poor perfusion)
- Catenary model
- compartments connected in series
- described as rarely used because organs aren’t truly parallel/sequential; many connect to a central blood compartment
One-compartment open model
- Drug rapidly distributes throughout the body
- Plasma concentration reflects tissue concentration proportionally
- Example scenarios:
- IV bolus
- IV infusion
- first-order absorption
- zero-order absorption
IV bolus in one-compartment model (first-order kinetics)
- Elimination rate determined by elimination rate constant (Ke)
- From semilog plot concepts:
- slope → elimination rate constant
- half-life from elimination rate constant
- clearance from elimination rate / plasma concentration
- Clearance meaning:
- theoretical volume/time for complete removal (volume per time)
- Relationship noted:
- elimination half-life relates to Vd and clearance
IV infusion (one-compartment model)
- Uses zero-order infusion rate
- Benefits mentioned:
- easier control of infusion rate
- prevents fluctuating plasma levels
- Steady-state concentration (Css):
- reached after multiple half-lives
- accumulation described:
- ~50% at 1 half-life
- ~75% at 2 half-lives
- ~90% of Css after 3.3 half-lives
- ~99% after 6.6 half-lives
Extravascular absorption modeling (oral/IM/SC/transdermal)
- Includes absorption influenced by:
- solubility
- permeability
- GI motility
- first-pass metabolism
- Uses a conceptual drug concentration vs time equation (details not fully provided).
Two-compartment models
- Drug does not instantly equilibrate between blood/plasma and tissues
- One compartment = blood/central
- Other compartment(s) = peripheral tissues
- Governed by transfer rate constants; elimination constant (K) used
- IV bolus can show biexponential decline (distribution + elimination).
Non-compartmental modeling
- Does not assume explicit compartments
- Uses:
- area under the curve (AUC)
- clearance metrics
- Used for estimating non-compartmental parameters
Physiological models
- Series of lumped compartments representing organs/tissue spaces
- Drug concentrations assumed uniform within regions
- Movement depends on organ blood flow rates
- Described as perfusion rate-limited
Conclusion
- Biopharmaceutics + pharmacokinetics are critical in drug development
- PK models help interpret LADME:
- absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination, and response
- Improved PK understanding can:
- improve efficacy
- minimize toxicity
- improve patient outcomes
Speakers / sources featured
- No specific speaker name or external source is identified in the provided subtitles (the narrator/lecturer is not named).
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