A novel method to predict the elimination half-lives and the renal excretion mechanisms of cephalosporins.

A novel method was proposed to predict the elimination half-lives of cephalosporins from plasma protein binding (unbound fraction, f) and fraction of the dose excreted into urine (f*) on the basis of the following four assumptions. 1) The drug is only distributed to the extracellular fluid, 2) the bound fraction of the drug in plasma is independent of the plasma drug concentration, 3) the binding protein of the drug is albumin, 4) the unbound drug in plasma is excreted by the glomerular filtration and the contribution of active secretion and reabsorption is negligible. The VSS's and t1/2 beta's of MT-141, one of cephalosporins, in rabbits, dogs and healthy human subjects were well predicted, whereas in rats, the prediction of the both values was failed. The t1/2 beta's of various cephalosporins in healthy subjects were calculated from f and f*, in reasonably good agreement with the observed ones, except for some cephalosporins which have been reported to be secreted actively in the renal tubules. Thus, the comparison of the calculated t1/2 beta's with the observed ones makes it possible to presume the renal excretion mechanism. Moreover, this method will be applicable to other drugs which satisfy the above four assumptions.