Increased risk of paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients using clopidogrel: a retrospective pilot study

Risk factors for taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients with breast cancer

PURPOSE

This study investigated the clinical risk factors for peripheral neuropathy induced by docetaxel and albumin-bound paclitaxel (AP) in patients with breast cancer.

METHODS

This prospective observational study recruited 268 patients between March 2019 and December 2020. Patient information was obtained through the query system for laboratory test results, patient consultations, and scale evaluations. Neuropathic symptoms were followed up throughout and until 3 months after taxane chemotherapy. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to find the risk factors for overall and moderate-severe taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy (TIPN).

RESULTS

Cumulative dose (odds ratio [OR] = 3.533, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.797-6.944, p < 0.001), body mass index (BMI) (OR = 2.926, 95% CI: 1.621-5.281, p < 0.001), body surface area (BSA) (OR = 1.724, 95% CI: 1.011-2.941, p = 0.045), and hypocalcemia (OR = 4.899, 95% CI: 1.518-15.811, p = 0.008) all increased the risk of TIPN. Only cumulative dose (OR = 2.577, 95% CI: 1.161-5.719, p = 0.020) and BSA (OR = 2.040, 95% CI: 1.073-3.877, p = 0.030) were independent risk factors for moderate-severe TIPN.

CONCLUSION

Cumulative dose, BMI, BSA, and hypocalcemia are all risk factors for overall TIPN, whereas cumulative dose and BSA are risk factors for moderate-severe TIPN. Patients with breast cancer who have high BMI, large BSA, hypocalcemia, and large cumulative dose may be at risk of TIPN, and intervention measures must be actively carried out for them.

Drug-herb Synergistic Interactions between Clopidogrel and Natural Medicine

INTRODUCTION

Natural medicine (NM) has been used since ancient times for therapeutic purposes worldwide. Presently, the combination of clopidogrel and NM with a reasonable synergistic effect has gained increasing acceptance in clinical therapeutics.

METHODS

Here, we have performed a comprehensive retrieval of literature published in both English and Chinese databases until August 1, 2022, studying the synergistic interactions of clopidogrel and NM through pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) analyses. We retrieved 7, 3, and 5 studies on PK analysis and 3, 3, and 8 studies on PD analysis for the interaction of clopidogrel with single herbal medicines, bioactive compounds, and herbal prescriptions, respectively. Most studies on NM have been found to mainly focus on preclinical observations, and there have been fewer clinical PK analyses.

RESULTS

A potential drug-herb interaction has been observed to occur when clopidogrel and NM were metabolized by an enzyme network comprising P-gp, CES1, and CYP450. In contrast, most PD studies have focused on clinical observations, and few preclinical findings have been reported. Some cases have suggested that the combination of the two types of drugs would alter the antiplatelet efficacy and adverse effects. Studies on PK, however, have shown significant or slightly varying results for the drug prototype and its metabolites.

CONCLUSION

In the combination therapies, the interaction between clopidogrel and NM was found to alter antiplatelet aggregation pathways and P2Y12 receptor function.

A pharmacovigilance study of pharmacokinetic drug interactions using a translational informatics discovery approach

BACKGROUND

While the pharmacokinetic (PK) mechanisms for many drug interactions (DDIs) have been established, pharmacovigilance studies related to these PK DDIs are limited. Using a large surveillance database, a translational informatics approach can systematically screen adverse drug events (ADEs) for many DDIs with known PK mechanisms.

METHODS

We collected a set of substrates and inhibitors related to the cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms, as recommended by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Drug Interactions Flockhart table™. The FDA's Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS) was used to obtain ADE reports from 2004 to 2018. The substrate and inhibitor information were used to form PK DDI pairs for each of the CYP isoforms and Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) preferred terms used for ADEs in FAERS. A shrinkage observed-to-expected ratio (Ω) analysis was performed to screen for potential PK DDI and ADE associations.

RESULTS

We identified 149 CYP substrates and 62 CYP inhibitors from the FDA and Flockhart tables. Using FAERS data, only those DDI-ADE associations were considered that met the disproportionality threshold of Ω > 0 for a CYP substrate when paired with at least two inhibitors. In total, 590 ADEs were associated with 2085 PK DDI pairs and 38 individual substrates, with ADEs overlapping across different CYP substrates. More importantly, we were able to find clinical and experimental evidence for the paclitaxel-clopidogrel interaction associated with peripheral neuropathy in our study.

CONCLUSION

In this study, we utilized a translational informatics approach to discover potentially novel CYP-related substrate-inhibitor and ADE associations using FAERS. Future clinical, population-based and experimental studies are needed to confirm our findings.

Translational aspects of cytochrome P450-mediated drug-drug interactions: A case study with clopidogrel

Multimorbidity, polypharmacotherapy and drug interactions are increasingly common in the ageing population. Many drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are caused by perpetrator drugs inhibiting or inducing cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, resulting in alterations of the plasma concentrations of a victim drug. DDIs can have a major negative health impact, and in the past, unrecognized DDIs have resulted in drug withdrawals from the market. Signals to investigate DDIs may emerge from a variety of sources. Nowadays, standard methods are widely available to identify and characterize the mechanisms of CYP-mediated DDIs in vitro. Clinical pharmacokinetic studies, in turn, provide experimental data on pharmacokinetic outcomes of DDIs. Physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling utilizing both in vitro and in vivo data is a powerful tool to predict different DDI scenarios. Finally, epidemiological studies can provide estimates on the health outcomes of DDIs. Thus, to fully characterize the mechanisms, clinical effects and implications of CYP-mediated DDIs, translational research approaches are required. This minireview provides an overview of translational approaches to study CYP-mediated DDIs, going beyond regulatory DDI guidelines, and an illustrative case study of how the DDI potential of clopidogrel was unveiled by combining these different methods.

Biological predictors of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN): MASCC neurological complications working group overview

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a common and debilitating condition associated with a number of chemotherapeutic agents. Drugs commonly implicated in the development of CIPN include platinum agents, taxanes, vinca alkaloids, bortezomib, and thalidomide analogues. As a drug response can vary between individuals, it is hypothesized that an individual's specific genetic variants could impact the regulation of genes involved in drug pharmacokinetics, ion channel functioning, neurotoxicity, and DNA repair, which in turn affect CIPN development and severity. Variations of other molecular markers may also affect the incidence and severity of CIPN. Hence, the objective of this review was to summarize the known biological (molecular and genomic) predictors of CIPN and discuss the means to facilitate progress in this field.

Concomitant Medications and Risk of Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy

BACKGROUND

Peripheral neuropathy is the dose-limiting toxicity of many oncology drugs, including paclitaxel. There is large interindividual variability in the neuropathy, and several risk factors have been proposed; however, many have not been replicated. Here we present a comprehensive study aimed at identifying treatment and physiopathology-related paclitaxel-induced neuropathy risk factors in a large cohort of well-characterized patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Analyses included 503 patients with breast or ovarian cancer who received paclitaxel treatment. Paclitaxel dose modifications caused by the neuropathy were extracted from medical records and patients self-reported neuropathy symptoms were collected. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify concomitant medications and comorbidities associated with paclitaxel-induced neuropathy.

RESULTS

Older patients had higher neuropathy: for each increase of 1 year of age, the risk of dose modifications and grade 3 neuropathy increased 4% and 5%, respectively. Cardiovascular drugs increased the risk of paclitaxel dose reductions (odds ratio [OR], 2.51; p = .006), with a stronger association for beta-adrenergic antagonists. The total number of concomitant medications also showed an association with dose modifications (OR, 1.25; p = .012 for each concomitant drug increase). A dose modification predictive model that included the new identified factors gave an area under the curve of 0.74 (p = 1.07 × 10^-10). Preexisting nerve compression syndromes seemed to increase neuropathy risk.

CONCLUSION

Baseline characteristics of the patients, including age and concomitant medications, could be used to identify individuals at high risk of neuropathy, personalizing chemotherapy treatment and reducing the risk of severe neuropathy.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Peripheral neuropathy is a common adverse effect of many cancer drugs, including chemotherapeutics, targeted therapies, and immune checkpoint inhibitors. About 40% of survivors of cancer have functional deficits caused by this toxicity, some of them irreversible. Currently, there are no effective treatments to prevent or treat this neuropathy. This study, performed in a large cohort of well-characterized patients homogenously treated with paclitaxel, identified concomitant medications, comorbidities, and demographic factors associated with peripheral neuropathy. These factors could serve to identify patients at high risk of severe neuropathy for whom alternative non-neurotoxic alternatives may be considered.