Population Pharmacokinetics of Midazolam in Healthy Koreans: Effect of Cytochrome P450 3A-mediated Drug-drug Interaction

Shin, Kwang Hee

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
Midazolam is mainly metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A. Inhibition or induction of CYP3A can affect the pharmacological activity of midazolam. The aims of this study were to develop a population pharmacokinetic (PK) model and evaluate the effect of CYP3A-mediated interactions among ketoconazole, rifampicin, and midazolam.
METHODS
Three-treatment, three-period, crossover study was conducted in 24 healthy male subjects. Each subject received 1 mg midazolam (control), 1 mg midazolam after pretreatment with 400 mg ketoconazole once daily for 4 days (CYP3A inhibition phase), and 2.5 mg midazolam after pretreatment with 600 mg rifampicin once daily for 10 days (CYP3A induction phase). The population PK analysis was performed using a nonlinear mixed effect model (NONMEM® 7.2) based on plasma midazolam concentrations. The PK model was developed, and the first-order conditional estimation with interaction was applied for the model run. A three-compartment model with first-order elimination described the PK. The influence of ketoconazole and rifampicin, CYP3A5 genotype, and demographic characteristics on PK parameters was examined. Goodness-of-fit (GOF) diagnostics and visual predictive checks, as well as bootstrap were used to evaluate the adequacy of the model fit and predictions.
RESULTS
Twenty-four subjects contributed to 900 midazolam concentrations. The final parameter estimates (% relative standard error, RSE) were as follows; clearance (CL), 31.8 L/h (6.0%); inter-compartmental clearance (Q) 2, 36.4 L/h (9.7%); Q3, 7.37 L/h (12.0%), volume of distribution (V) 1, 70.7 L (3.6%), V2, 32.9 L (8.8%); and V3, 44.4 L (6.7%). The midazolam CL decreased and increased to 32.5 and 199.9% in the inhibition and induction phases, respectively, compared to that in control phase.
CONCLUSION
A PK model for midazolam co-treatment with ketoconazole and rifampicin was developed using data of healthy volunteers, and the subject's CYP3A status influenced the midazolam PK parameters. Therefore, a population PK model with enzyme-mediated drug interactions may be useful for quantitatively predicting PK alterations.