Food Effects on Oral Drug Absorption: Application of Physiologically
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pharmaceutics Review Food Effects on Oral Drug Absorption: Application of Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling as a Predictive Tool Lisa Cheng and Harvey Wong * Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +1-604-822-4707 Received: 21 June 2020; Accepted: 15 July 2020; Published: 17 July 2020 Abstract: The bioavailability of an orally administered small molecule is often dictated by drug-specific physicochemical characteristics and is influenced by many biological processes. For example, in fed or fasted conditions, the transit time within the gastrointestinal tract can vary, confounding the ability to predict the oral absorption. As such, the effects of food on the pharmacokinetics of compounds in the various biopharmaceutics classification system (BCS) classes need to be assessed. The consumption of food leads to physiological changes, including fluctuations in the gastric and intestinal pH, a delay in gastric emptying, an increased bile secretion, and an increased splanchnic and hepatic blood flow. Despite the significant impact of a drug’s absorption and dissolution, food effects have not been fully studied and are often overlooked. Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models can be used to mechanistically simulate a compound’s pharmacokinetics under fed or fasted conditions, while integrating drug properties such as solubility and permeability. This review discusses the PBPK models published in the literature predicting the food effects, the models’ strengths and shortcomings, as well as future steps to mitigate the current knowledge gap. We observed gaps in knowledge which limits the ability of PBPK models to predict the negative food effects and food effects in the pediatric population. Overall, the further development of PBPK models to predict food effects will provide a mechanistic basis to understand a drug’s behavior in fed and fasted conditions, and will help enable the drug development process. Keywords: food effects; physiologically-based pharmacokinetic model; oral absorption; mathematical modeling 1. Introduction Oral administration is the most common route of drug delivery because of the convenience, relative cost-effectiveness, and ease of administration. These combined factors promote patient compliance. Despite its many advantages, it is often difficult to predict the drug’s oral pharmacokinetic profile in vivo. Specifically, there exists intra- and interindividual variabilities in oral drug absorption which affects bioavailability and impacts the therapeutic outcome. Drug-specific physicochemical characteristics (i.e., solubility and permeability) dictate the drug’s ability to travel across or through the intestinal wall into the hepatic portal vein and offers an initial understanding of its oral pharmacokinetics. Furthermore, complex biological processes including fluctuations in pH, gastric and intestinal movement, rate of blood flow, and bile salt secretion can impact the orally administered drug’s rate of absorption. The gastrointestinal tract’s physiology influences drug absorption and it is therefore imperative to ensure that any situations deterring the digestive system from homeostasis are explored. Food ingestion is known to alter the gastrointestinal environment, and individuals typically consume three meals a Pharmaceutics 2020, 12, 672; doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics12070672 www.mdpi.com/journal/pharmaceutics Pharmaceutics 2020, 12 2 of 19 The gastrointestinal tract’s physiology influences drug absorption and it is therefore imperative Pharmaceuticsto ensure that2020 ,any12, 672 situations deterring the digestive system from homeostasis are explored. 2Food of 18 ingestion is known to alter the gastrointestinal environment, and individuals typically consume three meals a day. This could affect the frequency at which drugs can be administered and when they can day.be taken This. couldAccording affect to the the frequency Food and at Drug which Administration drugs can be administered (FDA), drug andadministration when they canin the be fasted taken. 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