The effect of protein binding in an "extravascular" space on antimicrobial pharmacodynamics was studied in an in vitro capillary model of infection. Simulated 500-mg oral doses of dicloxacillin (-96% bound) or cephalexin (<5% bound) were administered every 6 h for four doses. A 10-fold-higher dose of dicloxacillin was also studied to determine the effect of drug concentration on Studies in animals (6,19,20), in vitro models (21), and humans (16,22,25) have shown that high serum protein binding significantly affects the kinetics of extravascular drug distribution. High binding to serum proteins (e.g., albumin) in the intravascular space tends to reduce the amount of drug available for diffusion into extravascular spaces (22,25). However, a considerable amount of serum protein also is distributed to the extravascular space; for example, approximately 60% of the total exchangeable albumin in the body is found in the extravascular space, but at lower concentrations than in the intravascular space (17). These proteins can bind a drug and result in higher concentrations of total (i.e., bound plus unbound) drug than those observed in protein-free spaces (2,9,11,19,21).There are few data on the effect of protein binding in an infected extravascular space on antibacterial pharmacodynamics following multiple simulated human doses. Therefore, the pharmacodynamics of simulated doses of a highly protein-bound drug (dicloxacillin) was compared with that of a drug with negligible protein binding (cephalexin) in an in vitro model of infection. The results show that during the early stages of treatment, high protein binding significantly retards the antimicrobial effects of dicloxacillin.
MATERIALS AND METHODSDrugs. Cephalexin and dicloxacillin analytical-grade powders were supplied by Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. Stock solutions were prepared in appropriate amounts of sterile, distilled, deionized water, which was further diluted in Mueller-Hinton broth (MHB) for dose administration. * Corresponding author.Bacteria. Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 was used as the test strain. Susceptibility testing was done by the method of Stratton and Reller (24), with the exception that serumsupplemented medium (MHB-SER) was 75% MHB and 25% human serum. The MIC and MBC for dicloxacillin against this strain in MHB were 0.25 ,g/ml; in MHB-SER, they were 2 and 8 ,ug/ml, respectively. The MIC and MBC for cephalexin against this strain were 4 and 8 ,ug/ml, respectively, in both MHB and MHB-SER.Protein binding. The binding of dicloxacillin in MHB-SER was measured with an Amicon MPS-1 unit with YMT membranes (Amicon Corp., Danvers, Mass.). Dicloxacillin was prepared in MHB-SER, and approximately 1 ml was added to ultrafiltration units. Samples were centrifuged for 20 min at 1,000 x g (swinging bucket) at 37°C. The ultrafiltrate was collected and assayed for dicloxacillin content by agar well diffusion assay using Bacillus subtilis.In vitro capillary model of infection. A two-compartment in vitro model was modified to simulate first-order ...