Research

Cardiovascular disorders are the first leading cause of death in the Unites States and a major cause of morbidity in patients with diabetes mellitus, obesity, renal or liver transplantation. 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins) class of lipid-lowering drugs are the first choice for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Atorvastatin acid (Lipitor®) is the top-selling statin of all time. The increasing global burden of heart diseases resulted in extensive use of statin therapy in a diverse patient population. A physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling approach was used for the prediction of pharmacokinetics of orally administered atorvastatin acid along with their major metabolites from in vitro data allowing mechanistic characterization of the observed concentrationtime profiles. A mechanistic modeling is needed to provide insights into the interplay of various phenomena involved in oral absorption and metabolism of drugs.
Related People: Fatemeh Akhlagh
(1)Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
(2) Simulations Plus, Inc., 42505 10th Street West, Lancaster, California 93534