# Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Approach to Determine Dosing on Extracorporeal Life Support

> **NIH NIH R01** · UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · 2020 · $614,847

## Abstract

Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is a life-saving technology in critically ill children. Children supported with
ECLS receive numerous drugs to treat critical illness and the underlying disease. Unfortunately, the majority of
drugs prescribed to children on ECLS lack dosing information. Our preliminary data demonstrate that dosing is
different in this population because the ECLS circuit components, like filters and tubing, as well as physiologic
alterations triggered by critical illness affect drug disposition substantially. The lack of appropriate dosing
information is an urgent, unmet public health need that can result in therapeutic failure and death. Dose
selection to achieve safe and effective use of drugs in children on ECLS is not feasible with traditional
pharmacokinetic (PK) trials for two reasons: 1) the effect of ECLS on drug disposition is drug- and age-specific,
necessitating trials for all possible drug-, age-, and ECLS circuit combinations; thus requiring large numbers of
children; and 2) these trials would need to be repeated whenever new ECLS circuit equipment is developed to
quantify the effect of the new equipment on dosing. Our team has proof of concept of an alternative approach
that addresses these limitations by using sophisticated physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK)
mathematical models to translate benchside ECLS experiments into bedside dosing recommendations.
However, this approach lacks generalizability thus far because its application is currently limited to two drugs
and only one mode of cardio-pulmonary ECLS (i.e., ECMO). In this proposal, we will build upon our prior work
to expand the approach to other forms of ECLS (i.e., dialysis) for multiple commonly used drugs in children.
The objective of this proposal is to evaluate ECLS circuit extraction of drugs by continuous renal replacement
therapy (CRRT) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) circuits in an ex vivo system for 10
commonly used drugs (AIM 1). These data will be used to develop ECLS-PBPK models and predict dosing in
children supported with CRRT and ECMO (AIM 2). The models and dosing recommendations will be validated
with data collected in a prospective PK study (AIM 3). Evaluating multiple drugs in different types of ECLS will
show the broad generalizability of this approach. The common use of these drugs provides additional public
health impact and lends feasibility to the proposed research.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9869018
- **Project number:** 5R01HD097775-03
- **Recipient organization:** UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
- **Principal Investigator:** Kevin M Watt
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $614,847
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-10-21 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9869018

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9869018, Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Approach to Determine Dosing on Extracorporeal Life Support (5R01HD097775-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9869018. Licensed CC0.

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