L-citrulline and Pulmonary Hypertension Associated With Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia

Summary

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a chronic lung disease that affects up to 35% of very low birth weight infants (VLBW \< 1500 g). Based on the current numbers of VLBW infants born annually in the U.S., between 5,000-10,000 neonates will develop BPD each year. It is estimated that 8-42% of infants with BPD will develop pulmonary hypertension (PH). Moreover, it has been known since the 1980's that echocardiographic evidence of PH in infants with BPD is associated with up to 40% mortality. Treatment options to ameliorate PH in infants with BPD (BPD-PH) are limited. There have been no randomized clinical trials of any therapy in infants with BPD-PH. The standard care for the management of BPD-PH is to attempt to resolve the underlying lung disorder and the judicious use of oxygen as a potent pulmonary vasodilator. Using this management approach, which has not changed since the 1980's, the survival rates for infants with BPD-PH in the 2000's has been reported to be 64% at 6 months and 53% at 2 years after diagnosis of PH. The lack of improvement in outcomes for the past 3 decades has led to the widespread agreement that novel and effective therapies are desperately needed for infants with BPD-PH. The goal is to develop oral L-citrulline clinically for the treatment of pediatric pulmonary hypertension associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD-PH); before pursuing a large scale treatment trial, pharmacokinetic (PK) dose-finding, tolerability studies in patients at high risk of developing BPD-PH are warranted. The hypothesis is that oral L-citrulline will be well tolerated, without significant adverse effects in infants at high risk of developing pulmonary hypertension (PH) associated with BPD. The investigators propose to first characterize the PK profile of oral L-citrulline in order to define an appropriate dose range and treatment interval for infants at high risk of developing BPD-PH. Then using the doses and intervals generated by the PK profile, with a maximum dose of 3 g/kg/d, the investigators propose to evaluate the tolerability and ability to achieve the target study drug level (100-150 micromolar) in babies treated for 72 hours with oral L-citrulline. These studies will provide the data needed to design a full-scale randomized multi-center trial to evaluate the efficacy of oral L-citrulline therapy to ameliorate BPD-PH in human infants, a patient population that has a desperate need of new therapies.

Timeline

Start

2019-07-30

Primary completion

2022-08-31

Completion

2022-08-31

Publications

• Results Fike CD, Avachat C, Birnbaum AK, Aschner JL, Sherwin CM. Pharmacokinetics of L-Citrulline in Neonates at Risk of Developing Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia-Associated Pulmonary Hypertension. Paediatr Drugs. 2023 Jan;25(1):87-96. doi: 10.1007/s40272-022-00542-x. Epub 2022 Oct 31.
• Results Fike CD, Aschner JL, Avachat C, Birnbaum AK, Sherwin CMT. Multi-dose enteral L-citrulline administration in premature infants at risk of developing pulmonary hypertension associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia. J Perinatol. 2024 Feb;44(2):280-287. doi: 10.1038/s41372-023-01809-y. Epub 2023 Oct 31.
• Aschner J, Avachat C, Birnbaum A, Sherwin C, Fike C. Multi-dose enteral L-citrulline administration in premature infants at risk of developing pulmonary hypertension associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Res Sq [Preprint]. 2023 Jun 9:rs.3.rs-3006963. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3006963/v1.

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