Genetic and Non-Genetic Determinants of Raltegravir Penetration into Cerebrospinal Fluid: A Single Arm Pharmacokinetic Study

BACKGROUND Antiretroviral drugs vary in their central nervous system penetration, with better penetration possibly conferring neurocognitive benefit during human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) therapy. The efflux transporter gene ABCB1 is expressed in the blood-brain barrier, and an ABCB1 variant (3435C → T) has been reported to affect ABCB1 expression. The integrase inhibitor raltegravir is a substrate for ABCB1. We examined whether ABCB1 3435C → T affects raltegravir disposition into cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and explored associations with polymorphisms in other membrane transporter genes expressed in the blood-brain barrier. METHODS Forty healthy, HIV-negative adults of European descent (20 homozygous for ABCB1 3435 C/C, 20 homozygous for 3435 T/T, each group divided equally between males and females) were given raltegravir 400 mg twice daily for 7 days. With the final dose, plasma was collected for pharmacokinetic analysis at 9 timepoints over 12 hours, and CSF collected 4 hours post dose. RESULTS The 4-hour CSF concentration correlated more strongly with 2-hour (r(2)=0.76, P=1.12 x 10(-11)) than 4-hour (r(2)=0.47, P=6.89 x 10(-6)) single timepoint plasma concentration, and correlated strongly with partial plasma area-under-the-curve values (AUC0-4h r(2)=0.86, P=5.15 x 10(-16)). There was no significant association between ABCB1 3435C → T and ratios of CSF-to-plasma AUC or concentration (p>0.05 for each comparison). In exploratory analyses, CSF-to-plasma ratios were not associated with 276 polymorphisms across 16 membrane transporter genes. CONCLUSIONS Among HIV-negative adults, CSF raltegravir concentrations do not differ by ABCB1 3435C → T genotype but strongly correlate with plasma exposure. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00729924 http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00729924.