Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic risk assessment

Rao HV, Ginsberg GL. A physiologically-based pharmacokinetic model assessment of methyl f-butyl ether in groundwater for a bathing and showering determination. Risk Anal 1997 17 583-98. 

Andersen ME, Clewell HJ 3rd, Gargas ME, et al. 1987. Physiologically based pharmacokinetics and the risk assessment process for methylene chloride. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 87 185-205. 

Notice Approaches for the Application of Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) Models and Supporting Data in Risk Assessment E-Docket ID No. ORD-2005-0022. Fed Reg July 28, 2005 70 (144) 43692-43693. 

Clewell HJ 3rd, Gentry PR, Covington TR, Gearhart JM. Development of a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model of trichloroethylene and its metabolites for use in risk assessment. Environ Health Perspect 2000 May 108 Suppl 2 283-305. 

Cronin WJ, Oswald EJ, Shelley ML, et al. 1995. A trichloroethylene risk assessment using a Monte Carlo analysis of parameter uncertainty in conjunction with physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling. Risk Anal 15 555-565. 

Absorbed lead is distributed in various tissue compartments. Several models of lead pharmacokinetics have been proposed to characterize such parameters as intercompartmental lead exchange rates, retention of lead in various pools, and relative rates of distribution among the tissue groups. See Section 2.3.5 for a discussion of the classical compartmental models and physiologically based pharmacokinetic models (PBPK) developed for lead risk assessments. 

FUN tool is a new integrated software based on a multimedia model, physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models and associated databases. The tool is a dynamic integrated model and is capable of assessing the human exposure to chemical substances via multiple exposure pathways and the potential health risks (Fig. 9) [70]. 2-FUN tool has been developed in the framework of the European project called 2-FUN (Full-chain and UNcertainty Approaches for Assessing Health Risks in FUture ENvironmental Scenarios www.2-fun.org). 

Other major early contributions of biochemical engineering have been in the development of the artificial kidney and physiologically based pharmacokinetic models. The artificial kidney has been literally a lifesaver. Pharmacokinetic models divide the body of an animal or human into various compartments that act as bioreactors. These mathematical models have been used very successfully in developing therapeutic strategies for the optimal delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs and in assessing risk from exposure to toxins. 

Andersen ME (1995) Development of physiologically based pharmacokinetic and physiologically based pharmacodynamic models for applications in toxicology and risk assessment. Toxicol Lett 79 35-44... 

Clewell HJ III, Andersen ME. 1985. Risk assessment extrapolations using physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling. Toxicol Ind Health 1 111-131. 

Leung, W.W. and D.J. Paustenbach. 1995. Physiologically based pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling in health risk assessment and characterization of hazardous substances. Toxicol. Lett. 79 55-65. 

Yang, R.S., H.A. El-Masri, R.S. Thomas, A.A. Constan, and J.D. Tessari. 1995. The apphcation of physiologically based pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PBPK/PD) modeling for exploring risk assessment approaches for chemical mixtures. Toxicol. Lett. 79 193-200. 

Clewell, H.J. Ill (1995) The application of physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling in human health risk assessment of hazardous substances. Toxicol. Lett., 79 (1-3), 207-217. 

A physiologically based pharmacokinetic model for predicting ethylene dibromide kinetics and consequent toxicity, based on in-vitro metabolic parameters of rodents and humans and on the use of scaling factors, has been presented (Ploemen et al., 1997). Its most important prediction is that the GST pathway is significantly active even at low ethylene dibromide concentrations, which has important implications for risk assessment. 

The explanation of the pharmacokinetics or toxicokinetics involved in absorption, distribution, and elimination processes is a highly specialized branch of toxicology, and is beyond the scope of this chapter. However, here we introduce a few basic concepts that are related to the several transport rate processes that we described earlier in this chapter. Toxicokinetics is an extension of pharmacokinetics in that these studies are conducted at higher doses than pharmacokinetic studies and the principles of pharmacokinetics are applied to xenobiotics. In addition these studies are essential to provide information on the fate of the xenobiotic following exposure by a define route. This information is essential if one is to adequately interpret the dose-response relationship in the risk assessment process. In recent years these toxicokinetic data from laboratory animals have started to be utilized in physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models to help extrapolations to low-dose exposures in humans. The ultimate aim in all of these analyses is to provide an estimate of tissue concentrations at the target site associated with the toxicity. 

Much of the research efforts in risk assessment are therefore aimed at reducing the need to use these default uncertainty factors, although the risk assessor is limited by data quality of the chemical of interest. With sufficient data and the advent of sophisticated and validated physiologically based pharmacokinetic models and biologically based dose-response models (Conolly and Butterworth, 1995), these default values can be replaced with science-based factors. In some instances there may be sufficient data to be able to obtain distributions rather than point estimates. 

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