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Generic Workflow to Predict Medicine Concentrations in Human Milk Using Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK)

Nina Nauwelaerts1, Julia Macente1, Neel Deferm1,2

  • 1Drug Delivery and Disposition, Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.

Pharmaceutics
|May 27, 2023
PubMed

Women commonly take medication during lactation. Currently, there is little information about the exposure-related safety of maternal medicines for breastfed infants. The aim was to explore the performance of a generic physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model to predict concentrations in human milk for ten physiochemically diverse medicines. First, PBPK models were developed for "non-lactating" adult individuals in PK-Sim/MoBi v9.1 (Open Systems Pharmacology). The PBPK models predicted the area-under-the-curve (AUC) and maximum concentrations (Cmax) in plasma within a two-fold error. Next, the PBPK models were extended to include lactation physiology. Plasma and human milk concentrations were simulated for a three-months postpartum population, and the corresponding AUC-based milk-to-plasma (M/P) ratios and relative infant doses were calculated. The lactation PBPK models resulted in reasonable predictions for eight medicines, while an overprediction of human milk concentrations and M/P ratios (>2-fold) was observed for two medicines. From a safety perspective, none of the models resulted in underpredictions of observed human milk concentrations. The present effort resulted in a generic workflow to predict medicine concentrations in human milk. This generic PBPK model represents an important step towards an evidence-based safety assessment of maternal medication during lactation, applicable in an early drug development stage.

Keywords:
breastfeedingdaily infant dosagehuman milkin silicolactationmedicinesmilk-to-plasma ratio (M/P ratio)pharmacokineticsphysiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling and simulationrelative infant dose

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