Computational Simulation of Pharmacokinetic Modeling of Drug Bevacizumab in AMD Treatment

Jabia M. Chowdhury

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY

"Computational Simulation of Pharmacokinetic Modeling of Drug Bevacizumab in AMD Treatment"

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an irreversible disease caused by macular deterioration and responsible for vision loss. AMD is caused by the growth of abnormal leaky blood vessels due to the high presence of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the macular region of the eye. Anti-VEGF drugs have been proven most stable medication in AMD treatment that inhibits the action of vascular endothelial growth factor in the macula. One of the most suggested anti-VEGF drugs used in AMD treatment is Bevacizumab using intravitreal injection. In our study, we developed a 3D spherical region of vitreous for the human and rabbit eye to computationally simulate the pharmacokinetic effect of the intravitreally injected drug Bevacizumab. The model is simulated in COMSOL under time-dependent conditions to observe the spatial drug distribution and calculate the concentration profile in the vitreous and near macula regions. The vitreous is treated as a Darcy porous medium, and the drug transport through the porous medium is solved using mass transport physics coupled with Darcy’s law, including the convection-diffusion effect. The model includes the drug elimination route both anteriorly and posteriorly. Both models are validated against the experimental pharmacokinetic model data using the drug Bevacizumab, and our drug concentration-time plots in vitreous for both the human and rabbit eye are in good agreement with the experimental data. The drug concentration near the macula is also explained with experimental validation.
Additional authors: Eduardo A. Chacin Ruiz (1); Katelyn E. Swindle- Reilly (2,3); Ashlee N. Ford Versypt (1) (1) Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY (2) William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (3) Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

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