Pharmacokinetics and safety of a single dose of telavancin in pediatric subjects 2-17 years of age

Antimicrobial resistance increases infection morbidity in both adults and children, necessitating the development of new therapeutic options. Telavancin, an antibiotic approved in the United States for certain bacterial infections in adults, has not been examined in pediatric patients. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the short-term safety and pharmacokinetics (PK) of a single intravenous infusion of telavancin in pediatric patients. Single-dose safety and PK of 10 mg/kg telavancin was investigated in pediatric subjects >12 months to ≤17 years of age with known or suspected bacterial infection. Plasma was collected up to 24-h post-infusion and analyzed for concentrations of telavancin and its metabolite for noncompartmental PK analysis. Safety was monitored by physical exams, vital signs, laboratory values, and adverse events following telavancin administration. Twenty-two subjects were enrolled: 14 subjects in Cohort 1 (12-17 years), 7 subjects in Cohort 2 (6-11 years), and 1 subject in Cohort 3 (2-5 years). A single dose of telavancin was well-tolerated in all pediatric age cohorts without clinically significant effects. All age groups exhibited increased clearance of telavancin and reduced exposure to telavancin compared to adults, with mean peak plasma concentrations of 58.3 µg/mL (Cohort 1), 60.1 µg/mL (Cohort 2), and 53.1 µg/mL (Cohort 3). A 10 mg/kg dose of telavancin was well tolerated in pediatric subjects. Telavancin exposure was lower in pediatric subjects compared to adult subjects. Further studies are needed to determine the dose required in phase 3 clinical trials in pediatrics.

Comparative Pharmacodynamics of Telavancin and Vancomycin in the Neutropenic Murine Thigh and Lung Infection Models against Staphylococcus aureus

The pharmacodynamics of telavancin and vancomycin were compared using neutropenic murine thigh and lung infection models. Four Staphylococcus aureus strains were included. The telavancin MIC ranged from 0.06 to 0.25 mg/liter, and the vancomycin MIC ranged from 1 to 4 mg/liter. The plasma pharmacokinetics of escalating doses (1.25, 5, 20, and 80 mg/kg of body weight) of telavancin and vancomycin were linear over the dose range. Epithelial lining fluid (ELF) pharmacokinetics for each drug revealed that penetration into the ELF mirrored the percentage of the free fraction (the fraction not protein bound) in plasma for each drug. Telavancin (0.3125 to 80 mg/kg/6 h) and vancomycin (0.3125 to 1,280 mg/kg/6 h) were administered by the subcutaneous route in treatment studies. Dose-dependent bactericidal activity against all four strains was observed in both models. A sigmoid maximum-effect model was used to determine the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC)/MIC exposure associated with net stasis and 1-log₁₀ kill relative to the burden at the start of therapy. The 24-h plasma free drug AUC (fAUC)/MIC values associated with stasis and 1-log kill were remarkably congruent. Net stasis for telavancin was noted at fAUC/MIC values of 83 and 40.4 in the thigh and lung, respectively, and 1-log kill was noted at fAUC/MIC values of 215 and 76.4, respectively. For vancomycin, the fAUC/MIC values for stasis were 77.9 and 45.3, respectively, and those for 1-log kill were 282 and 113, respectively. The 24-h ELF total drug AUC/MIC targets in the lung model were very similar to the 24-h plasma free drug AUC/MIC targets for each drug. Integration of human pharmacokinetic data for telavancin, the results of the MIC distribution studies, and the pharmacodynamic targets identified in this study suggests that the current dosing regimen of telavancin is optimized to obtain drug exposures sufficient to treat S. aureus infections.

Efficacy of Telavancin Alone and in Combination with Ampicillin in a Rat Model of Enterococcus faecalis Endocarditis

We first assessed telavancin (TLV) pharmacokinetics in rats after a single subcutaneous dose of 35 mg/kg of body weight. The pharmacokinetic data were used to predict a TLV dose that simulates human exposure, and the efficacy of TLV was then evaluated using a TLV dose of 21 mg/kg every 12 h against Enterococcus faecalis OG1RF (TLV MIC of 0.06 μg/ml) in a rat endocarditis model with an indwelling catheter. Therapy was given for 3 days with TLV, daptomycin (DAP), or ampicillin (AMP) monotherapy and with combinations of TLV plus AMP, AMP plus gentamicin (GEN), and AMP plus ceftriaxone (CRO); rats were sacrificed 24 h after the last dose. Antibiotics were given to simulate clinically relevant concentrations or as used in other studies. TLV treatment resulted in a significant decrease in bacterial burden (CFU per gram) in vegetations from 6.0 log₁₀ at time 0 to 3.1 log₁₀ after 3 days of therapy. Bacterial burdens in vegetations were also significantly lower in the TLV-treated rats than in the AMP (P = 0.0009)- and AMP-plus-GEN (P = 0.035)-treated rats but were not significantly different from that of the AMP-plus-CRO-treated rats. Bacterial burdens from vegetations in TLV monotherapy and TLV-plus-AMP-and-DAP groups were similar to each other (P ≥ 0.05). Our data suggest that further study of TLV as a therapeutic alternative for deep-seated infections caused by vancomycin-susceptible E. faecalis is warranted.

Evaluation of Antibiotics Active against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Based on Activity in an Established Biofilm

We used in vitro and in vivo models of catheter-associated biofilm formation to compare the relative activity of antibiotics effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the specific context of an established biofilm. The results demonstrated that, under in vitro conditions, daptomycin and ceftaroline exhibited comparable activity relative to each other and greater activity than vancomycin, telavancin, oritavancin, dalbavancin, or tigecycline. This was true when assessed using established biofilms formed by the USA300 methicillin-resistant strain LAC and the USA200 methicillin-sensitive strain UAMS-1. Oxacillin exhibited greater activity against UAMS-1 than LAC, as would be expected, since LAC is an MRSA strain. However, the activity of oxacillin was less than that of daptomycin and ceftaroline even against UAMS-1. Among the lipoglycopeptides, telavancin exhibited the greatest overall activity. Specifically, telavancin exhibited greater activity than oritavancin or dalbavancin when tested against biofilms formed by LAC and was the only lipoglycopeptide capable of reducing the number of viable bacteria below the limit of detection. With biofilms formed by UAMS-1, telavancin and dalbavancin exhibited comparable activity relative to each other and greater activity than oritavancin. Importantly, ceftaroline was the only antibiotic that exhibited greater activity than vancomycin when tested in vivo in a murine model of catheter-associated biofilm formation. These results emphasize the need to consider antibiotics other than vancomycin, most notably, ceftaroline, for the treatment of biofilm-associated S. aureus infections, including by the matrix-based antibiotic delivery methods often employed for local antibiotic delivery in the treatment of these infections.