Quantitative Systems Pharmacology

Book excerpt: Quantitative Systems Pharmacology: Models and Model-Based Systems with Applications, Volume 42, provides a quantitative approach to problem-solving that is targeted to engineers. The book gathers the contributions of doctors, pharmacists, biologists, and chemists who give key information on the elements needed to model a complex machine like the human body. It presents information on diagnoses, administration and release of therapeutics, distribution metabolism and excretion of drugs, compartmental pharmacokinetics, physiologically-based pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, identifiability of models, numerical methods for models identification, design of experiments, in vitro and in vivo models, and more. As the pharma community is progressively acknowledging that a quantitative and systematic approach to drug administration, release, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics is highly recommended to understand the mechanisms and effects of drugs, this book is a timely resource. - Outlines a model-based approach (based on Process Systems Engineering-OSE and Computer Aided Process Engineering-CAPE) in quantitative pharmacology - Explains how therapeutics work in the human body and how anatomy and physiology influences drug efficacy - Discusses how drugs are driven to specific targets using nanoparticles - Offers insight into how in vitro and in vivo experiments help understand the drug mechanism of action and optimize their performance - Includes case studies showing the positive outcome of these methods in personalized therapies, therapeutic drug monitoring, clinical trials analysis and drug formulation