Title
Pharmacokinetics, safety, and tolerability of oxfendazole in healthy volunteers: A randomized, placebo-controlled first-inhuman single-dose escalation study
Date Issued
01 April 2019
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
An G.
Murry D.J.
Gajurel K.
Bach T.
Deye G.
Stebounova L.V.
Codd E.E.
Horton J.
Ince D.
Hodgson-Zingman D.
Nomicos E.Y.H.
Conrad T.
Kennedy J.
Jones W.
Winokur P.
Publisher(s)
American Society for Microbiology
Abstract
Cysticercosis is a parasitic disease that frequently involves the human central nervous system (CNS), and current treatment options are limited. Oxfendazole, a veterinary medicine belonging to the benzimidazole family of anthelmintic drugs, has demonstrated substantial activity against the tissue stages of Taenia solium and has potential to be developed as an effective therapy for neurocysticercosis. To accelerate the transition of oxfendazole from veterinary to human use, the pharmacokinetics, safety, and tolerability of oxfendazole were evaluated in healthy volunteers in this phase 1 first-in-human (FIH) study. Seventy subjects were randomly assigned to receive a single oral dose of oxfendazole (0.5, 1, 3, 7.5, 15, 30, or 60 mg oxfendazole/kg body weight) or placebo and were followed for 14 days. Blood and urine samples were collected, and the concentrations of oxfendazole were measured using a validated ultraperformance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry method. The pharmacokinetic parameters of oxfendazole were estimated using noncompartmental analysis. Oxfendazole was rapidly absorbed with a mean plasma half-life ranging from 8.5 to 11 h. The renal excretion of oxfendazole was minimal. Oxfendazole exhibited significant nonlinear pharmacokinetics with less than dose-proportional increases in exposure after single oral doses of 0.5 mg/kg to 60 mg/kg. This nonlinearity of oxfendazole is likely due to the dose-dependent decrease in bioavailability that is caused by its low solubility. Oxfendazole was found to be well tolerated in this study at different escalating doses without any serious adverse events (AEs) or deaths. There were no significant differences in the distributions of hematology, biochemistry, or urine parameters between oxfendazole and placebo recipients. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under identifier NCT02234570.
Volume
63
Issue
4
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Farmacología, Farmacia Parasitología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85063660228
PubMed ID
Source
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
ISSN of the container
00664804
Sponsor(s)
This work was supported by the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, through Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit contracts HHSN272200800008C and HHSN272201300020I and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences grant (5U54TR001356) to the University of Iowa for the work done in the Clinical Research Unit.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus