Project

Characterisation of an obese piglet model to study drug dosing in obese children

Code
DOCT/010715
Duration
03 October 2023 → 21 September 2025 (Ongoing)
Doctoral researcher
Research disciplines
  • Medical and health sciences
    • Pharmacokinetics
    • Paediatrics
Keywords
piglet model children tissue and metabolites pharmacokinetic obesitas
 
Project description
 

Despite the rapid increase in childhood obesity, there remains a significant gap in understanding the impact of obesity on drug pharmacokinetics (PK) in pediatric patients. Consequently, this vulnerable patient population remains deprived of evidence-based drug treatment. Performing pediatric drug research, especially in specific pediatric populations, presents several challenges. Therefore, regulatory agencies such as the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have encouraged the development of animal models. Among these, pigs are particularly notable due to their high degree of anatomical and physiological similarity to humans, positioning them as an innovative and promising juvenile animal model for predicting PK reliably in children. Hence, this project aims to establish a juvenile piglet model to investigate how variations in body composition influence the PK of model drugs, namely cefazolin and paracetamol, across different pediatric age groups (2-15 years).