AUTHOR=Herrera Carolina 

TITLE=The Pre-clinical Toolbox of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics: in vitro and ex vivo Models

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2019.00578

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2019.00578

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=<p>Prevention strategies against sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are essential to curb the rate of new infections. In the absence of a correlate of protection against HIV infection, pre-clinical evaluation is fundamental to facilitate and accelerate prioritization of prevention candidates and their formulations in a rapidly evolving clinical landscape. Characterization of pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) properties for candidate inhibitors is the main objective of pre-clinical evaluation. <italic>in vitro</italic> and <italic>ex vivo</italic> systems for pharmacological assessment allow experimental flexibility and adaptability at a relatively low cost without raising as significant ethical concerns as <italic>in vivo</italic> models. Applications and limitations of pre-clinical PK/PD models and future alternatives are reviewed in the context of HIV prevention.</p>