Abstract
The foundation for pharmacokinetics (PK) and toxicokinetics (TK) is the temporal context for the dynamic interplay of a drug, in the case of PK, and a toxicant, in the case of TK, and their respective receptors. The shared body of knowledge, the focus, and the objectives between PK and TK are recognized and accepted. 1 Consequently, it is not unreasonable to expect that Essential Pharmacokinetics—A Primer for Pharmaceutical Scientists can potentially serve as a resource for toxicologists.
The paperback text of 178 pages contains 7 chapters, 2 appendices, and an index. On the back cover, the book is identified as “an introductory reference intended for graduate students and new researchers working in the pharmaceutical sciences.” Furthermore, the back cover description states that the text can serve as a self-study and classroom resource as well as a resource “for new and established scientists looking for an introduction to or refresher on basic pharmacokinetics.” In short, the book claims to be an introduction to PK fundamentals or a foundational PK text, one that a nonpharmacokineticist would use for obtaining a quick and clear understanding of fundamental PK concepts.
The second chapter, which comprises 45% of the book, attempts to lay out as its title indicates the “Basic Concepts of Pharmacokinetics.” An outline at the beginning of the chapter serves as a guide to the reader for important fundamental PK topics such as compartment models, drug dynamics (absorption, availability, distribution, protein binding, metabolism, and clearance), multiple dosing regimens, nonlinear PK, and transmembrane migrations.
The third chapter, which is the second largest chapter, makes up 12% of the book. The chapter covers the relationship between physiochemical properties and PK. The chapter covers Lipinski’s rule of five for predicting drug absorption, biopharmaceutical classes of physical properties that influence the impact of the formulations on bioavailability, and PK of prodrugs and excipients.
The remaining 5 chapters address the PK of various routes of administration, pharmacological responses, drug dosage monitoring, and a 9-page chapter of 17 problems with the answers in Appendix 1. There is also a second Appendix, which contains symbols and abbreviations used in the book. The book ends with an index. Unfortunately, shortcomings of the book outweigh its value. Most of the book, especially chapter 2, which is the essential component of the book, reads like lecture notes without the benefit of a lecturer with whom the reader could interact. Only a small number of readers would be excited to read pages of equations without a lecturer extolling the mathematical beauty lying on either side of an equal sign.
There are also serious flaws in the index of the book. For a text that claims to be “essential” to a topic, it must present a comprehensive index so all of the “essential” components of the topic can readily be found. It is almost difficult to believe that for an “essential” PK text book, “half-life” (t1/2) is not found in the index, even though the term is listed in Appendix 2 Symbols and Abbreviations and used on page 11. However, more importantly, “half-life or t1/2” is not defined.
Other flaws indicate that little attention was given to grammatical proofing. Using a portion of a word that is being defined in its own definition is an obvious grammatical faux pas “Pharmacokinetics is the kinetics …” Perhaps a better definition would have been the first sentence, or a variation of it, in this review.
There are other instances where additional proofing would have been beneficial. Using the term “pathway” to describe the process of drug manufacturing and formulating is confusing to scientists who have used the word to describe the appearance and disappearance of intermediates during metabolism. More importantly to the subject at hand, detoxification processes have been described as xenobiotic metabolic pathways.
Associating the term “pathway” with manufacturing when speaking to a biochemist, pharmacologist, or toxicologist adds a layer of unnecessary confusion for the reader. There are over 3,500 book titles listed on Amazon 2 and over 9,000 videos on YouTube, 3 which are available to the toxicologist that address PK or TK. The YouTube videos are particularly useful for single or simple questions or to assist in selecting the most appropriate text to meet one’s needs. If a toxicologist needs a book on his or her shelf, there are better options among the many texts available. Considering that the purchase could be a large investment, a survey of the YouTube videos will help in refining one’s selection criteria. A review of the relevant available YouTube videos before paying $75 for Essential Pharmacokinetics—A Primer for Pharmaceutical Sciences would be a prudent course of action.