Abstract

Therapeutic proteins (TPs) have ranked among the most important and fastest-growing classes of drugs in the clinic, yet the development of successful TPs is often limited by unsatisfactory efficacy. Understanding pharmacokinetic (PK) characteristics of TPs is key to achieving sufficient and prolonged exposure at the site-of-action, which is a prerequisite for eliciting desired pharmacological effects. PK modeling represents a powerful tool to investigate factors governing in vivo disposition of TPs. In this mini-review, we discuss many state-of-the-art models that recapitulate critical processes in each of the absorption, distribution, metabolism/catabolism, and excretion (ADME) pathways of TPs, which can be integrated into the physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) framework. Additionally, we provide our perspectives on current opportunities and challenges for evolving the PK models to accelerate the discovery and development of safe and efficacious TPs.

Significance Statement This minireview provides an overview of mechanistic PK models developed to characterize ADME properties of therapeutic proteins (TPs), which can be used to support model-informed discovery and development of TPs. As the next-generation of TPs with diverse physicochemical properties and mechanism-of-action is being developed rapidly, there is an urgent need to better understand the determinants for the ADME of TPs and evolve existing platform PK models to facilitate successful bench-to-bedside translation of these promising drug molecules.