For a drug with linear PK, we would expect that a 2-fold increase in dose would result in a 2-fold increase in drug exposure. Nonlinear PK means that increases in drug exposure are not linearly related to increases in administered doses. EPO is a common PED for cyclists, runners, and other endurance sports.īut the use of EPO has nothing to do with the nonlinear PK that it exhibits when administered to humans. Athletes use EPO to gain a competitive advantage by increasing the oxygen transport capacity in their body and thus increasing endurance. Patient who undergo chemotherapy often receive EPO to help boost red blood cell production to replace the cells lost during the chemotherapy regimen. EPO regulates red blood cell production, and it is used therapeutically to stimulate bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. You may have heard about EPO in the context of sports because it is a performance enhancing drug (PED). An example of a drug that has nonlinear pharmacokinetics (PK) is erythropoietin or EPO. You may come across a phrase like the following and wonder what it means: “… this drug exhibits nonlinear pharmacokinetics …”.
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