In silico evaluation of the role of lisdexamfetamine on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder common psychiatric comorbidities: mechanistic insights on binge eating disorder and depression.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a psychiatric condition well recognized in the pediatric population that can persist into adulthood. The vast majority of patients with ADHD present psychiatric comorbidities that have been suggested to share, to some extent, the pathophysiological mechanism of ADHD. Lisdexamfetamine (LDX) is a stimulant prodrug approved for treating ADHD and, in the US, also for binge eating disorder (BED). Herein, we evaluated, through a systems biology-based in silico method, the efficacy of a virtual model of LDX (vLDX) as ADHD treatment to improve five common ADHD psychiatric comorbidities in adults and children, and we explored the molecular mechanisms behind LDX's predicted efficacy. After the molecular characterization of vLDX and the comorbidities (anxiety, BED, bipolar disorder, depression, and tics disorder), we created a protein-protein interaction human network to which we applied artificial neural networks (ANN) algorithms. We also generated virtual populations of adults and children-adolescents totaling 2,600 individuals and obtained the predicted protein activity from Therapeutic Performance Mapping System models. The latter showed that ADHD molecular description shared 53% of its protein effectors with at least one studied psychiatric comorbidity. According to the ANN analysis, proteins targeted by vLDX are predicted to have a high probability of being related to BED and depression. In BED, vLDX was modeled to act upon neurotransmission and neuroplasticity regulators, and, in depression, vLDX regulated the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and glutamatergic excitotoxicity. In conclusion, our modeling results, despite their limitations and although requiring in vitro or in vivo validation, could supplement the design of preclinical and potentially clinical studies that investigate treatment for patients with ADHD with psychiatric comorbidities, especially from a molecular point of view.

In silico clinical trial evaluating lisdexamfetamine's and methylphenidate's mechanism of action computational models in an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder virtual patients' population.

Introduction: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an impairing psychiatric condition with the stimulants, lisdexamfetamine (LDX), and methylphenidate (MPH), as the first lines pharmacological treatment. Methods: Herein, we applied a novel in silico method to evaluate virtual LDX (vLDX) and vMPH as treatments for ADHD applying quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) models. The objectives were to evaluate the model's output, considering the model characteristics and the information used to build them, to compare both virtual drugs' efficacy mechanisms, and to assess how demographic (age, body mass index, and sex) and clinical characteristics may affect vLDX's and vMPH's relative efficacies. Results and Discussion: We molecularly characterized the drugs and pathologies based on a bibliographic search, and generated virtual populations of adults and children-adolescents totaling 2,600 individuals. For each virtual patient and virtual drug, we created physiologically based pharmacokinetic and QSP models applying the systems biology-based Therapeutic Performance Mapping System technology. The resulting models' predicted protein activity indicated that both virtual drugs modulated ADHD through similar mechanisms, albeit with some differences. vMPH induced several general synaptic, neurotransmitter, and nerve impulse-related processes, whereas vLDX seemed to modulate neural processes more specific to ADHD, such as GABAergic inhibitory synapses and regulation of the reward system. While both drugs' models were linked to an effect over neuroinflammation and altered neural viability, vLDX had a significant impact on neurotransmitter imbalance and vMPH on circadian system deregulation. Among demographic characteristics, age and body mass index affected the efficacy of both virtual treatments, although the effect was more marked for vLDX. Regarding comorbidities, only depression negatively impacted both virtual drugs' efficacy mechanisms and, while that of vLDX were more affected by the co-treatment of tic disorders, the efficacy mechanisms of vMPH were disturbed by wide-spectrum psychiatric drugs. Our in silico results suggested that both drugs could have similar efficacy mechanisms as ADHD treatment in adult and pediatric populations and allowed raising hypotheses for their differential impact in specific patient groups, although these results require prospective validation for clinical translatability.

A multicenter, open-label, randomized, proof-of-concept phase II clinical trial to assess the efficacy and safety of icatibant in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and admitted to hospital units without invasive mechanical ventilation: study protocol (ICAT-COVID).

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has quickly become a global pandemic with a substantial number of deaths and is a considerable burden for healthcare systems worldwide. Although most cases are paucisymptomatic and limited to the viral infection-related symptoms, some patients evolve to a second phase, with an impaired inflammatory response (cytokine storm) that may lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome and death. This is thought to be caused by increased bradykinin synthesis. METHODS: ICAT-COVID is a multicenter, randomized, open-label, proof-of-concept phase II clinical trial assessing the clinical efficacy and safety of adding icatibant to the standard of care in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 without invasive mechanical ventilation. Patients hospitalized with a confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia diagnosis (RT-PCR or antigen test ≤ 10 days prior to randomization, and radiographic evidence of pulmonary infiltrates), rated "4" or "5" on the WHO's clinical status scale, are eligible. Patients will be randomized on a 1:1 ratio to either standard of care-plus-icatibant (experimental group) or to standard of care alone (control group). The experimental group will receive 30 mg of icatibant subcutaneously 3 times a day for 3 days (for a total of 9 doses). The expected sample size is 120 patients (60 per group) from 2 sites in Spain. Primary outcomes are the efficacy and safety of Icatibant. The main efficacy outcome is the number of patients reaching grades "2" or "1" on the WHO scale within 10 days of starting treatment. Secondary outcomes include "long-term efficacy": number of patients discharged who do not present COVID-19-related relapse or comorbidity up until 28 days after discharge, and mortality. DISCUSSION: Icatibant, a bradykinin type 2 receptor antagonist with proven effectiveness and safety against hereditary angioedema attacks, may be beneficial for COVID-19 patients by inhibiting bradykinin's action on endothelial cells and by inhibiting the SARS-CoV-2 M protease. Our working hypothesis is that treatment with standard of care-plus-icatibant is effective and safe to treat patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 admitted to hospital for pneumonia without invasive mechanical ventilation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: EudraCT 2020-002166-13. CLINICALTRIALS: gov NCT04978051.

Evaluation of Natural Language Processing for the Identification of Crohn Disease-Related Variables in Spanish Electronic Health Records: A Validation Study for the PREMONITION-CD Project.

BACKGROUND: The exploration of clinically relevant information in the free text of electronic health records (EHRs) holds the potential to positively impact clinical practice as well as knowledge regarding Crohn disease (CD), an inflammatory bowel disease that may affect any segment of the gastrointestinal tract. The EHRead technology, a clinical natural language processing (cNLP) system, was designed to detect and extract clinical information from narratives in the clinical notes contained in EHRs. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to validate the performance of the EHRead technology in identifying information of patients with CD. METHODS: We used the EHRead technology to explore and extract CD-related clinical information from EHRs. To validate this tool, we compared the output of the EHRead technology with a manually curated gold standard to assess the quality of our cNLP system in detecting records containing any reference to CD and its related variables. RESULTS: The validation metrics for the main variable (CD) were a precision of 0.88, a recall of 0.98, and an F1 score of 0.93. Regarding the secondary variables, we obtained a precision of 0.91, a recall of 0.71, and an F1 score of 0.80 for CD flare, while for the variable vedolizumab (treatment), a precision, recall, and F1 score of 0.86, 0.94, and 0.90 were obtained, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This evaluation demonstrates the ability of the EHRead technology to identify patients with CD and their related variables from the free text of EHRs. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to use a cNLP system for the identification of CD in EHRs written in Spanish.

Clinical characteristics and prognostic factors for Crohn's disease relapses using natural language processing and machine learning: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: The impact of relapses on disease burden in Crohn's disease (CD) warrants searching for predictive factors to anticipate relapses. This requires analysis of large datasets, including elusive free-text annotations from electronic health records. This study aims to describe clinical characteristics and treatment with biologics of CD patients and generate a data-driven predictive model for relapse using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML). METHODS: We performed a multicenter, retrospective study using a previously validated corpus of CD patient data from eight hospitals of the Spanish National Healthcare Network from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2018 using NLP. Predictive models were created with ML algorithms, namely, logistic regression, decision trees, and random forests. RESULTS: CD phenotype, analyzed in 5938 CD patients, was predominantly inflammatory, and tobacco smoking appeared as a risk factor, confirming previous clinical studies. We also documented treatments, treatment switches, and time to discontinuation in biologics-treated CD patients. We found correlations between CD and patient family history of gastrointestinal neoplasms. Our predictive model ranked 25 000 variables for their potential as risk factors for CD relapse. Of highest relative importance were past relapses and patients' age, as well as leukocyte, hemoglobin, and fibrinogen levels. CONCLUSION: Through NLP, we identified variables such as smoking as a risk factor and described treatment patterns with biologics in CD patients. CD relapse prediction highlighted the importance of patients' age and some biochemistry values, though it proved highly challenging and merits the assessment of risk factors for relapse in a clinical setting.

Methods to Develop an in silico Clinical Trial: Computational Head-to-Head Comparison of Lisdexamfetamine and Methylphenidate.

Regulatory agencies encourage computer modeling and simulation to reduce the time and cost of clinical trials. Although still not classified in formal guidelines, system biology-based models represent a powerful tool for generating hypotheses with great molecular detail. Herein, we have applied a mechanistic head-to-head in silico clinical trial (ISCT) between two treatments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, to wit lisdexamfetamine (LDX) and methylphenidate (MPH). The ISCT was generated through three phases comprising (i) the molecular characterization of drugs and pathologies, (ii) the generation of adult and children virtual populations (vPOPs) totaling 2,600 individuals and the creation of physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) and quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) models, and (iii) data analysis with artificial intelligence methods. The characteristics of our vPOPs were in close agreement with real reference populations extracted from clinical trials, as did our PBPK models with in vivo parameters. The mechanisms of action of LDX and MPH were obtained from QSP models combining PBPK modeling of dosing schemes and systems biology-based modeling technology, i.e., therapeutic performance mapping system. The step-by-step process described here to undertake a head-to-head ISCT would allow obtaining mechanistic conclusions that could be extrapolated or used for predictions to a certain extent at the clinical level. Altogether, these computational techniques are proven an excellent tool for hypothesis-generation and would help reach a personalized medicine.

Head to head evaluation of second generation ALK inhibitors brigatinib and alectinib as first-line treatment for ALK+ NSCLC using an in silico systems biology-based approach.

Around 3-7% of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which represent 85% of diagnosed lung cancers, have a rearrangement in the ALK gene that produces an abnormal activity of the ALK protein cell signaling pathway. The developed ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), such as crizotinib, ceritinib, alectinib, brigatinib and lorlatinb present good performance treating ALK+ NSCLC, although all patients invariably develop resistance due to ALK secondary mutations or bypass mechanisms. In the present study, we compare the potential differences between brigatinib and alectinib's mechanisms of action as first-line treatment for ALK+ NSCLC in a systems biology-based in silico setting. Therapeutic performance mapping system (TPMS) technology was used to characterize the mechanisms of action of brigatinib and alectinib and the impact of potential resistances and drug interferences with concomitant treatments. The analyses indicate that brigatinib and alectinib affect cell growth, apoptosis and immune evasion through ALK inhibition. However, brigatinib seems to achieve a more diverse downstream effect due to a broader cancer-related kinase target spectrum. Brigatinib also shows a robust effect over invasiveness and central nervous system metastasis-related mechanisms, whereas alectinib seems to have a greater impact on the immune evasion mechanism. Based on this in silico head to head study, we conclude that brigatinib shows a predicted efficacy similar to alectinib and could be a good candidate in a first-line setting against ALK+ NSCLC. Future investigation involving clinical studies will be needed to confirm these findings. These in silico systems biology-based models could be applied for exploring other unanswered questions.

Clinical and pathological characteristics of peripheral T-cell lymphomas in a Spanish population: a retrospective study.

We investigated the clinicopathological features and prognostic factors of patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) in 13 sites across Spain. Relevant clinical antecedents, CD30 expression and staining pattern, prognostic indices using the International Prognostic Index and the Intergruppo Italiano Linfomi system, treatments, and clinical outcomes were examined. A sizeable proportion of 175 patients had a history of immune-related disorders (autoimmune 16%, viral infections 17%, chemo/radiotherapy-treated carcinomas 19%). The median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 7·9 and 15·8 months, respectively. Prognostic indices influenced PFS and OS, with a higher number of adverse factors resulting in shorter survival (P < 0·001). Complete response (CR) to treatment was associated with better PFS (62·6 vs. 4 months; P < 0·001) and longer OS (67·0 vs. 7·3 months; P < 0·001) compared to no CR. CD30 was expressed across all subtypes; >15% of cells were positive in anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive and -negative anaplastic large-cell lymphoma and extranodal natural killer PTCL groups. We observed PTCL distribution across subtypes based on haematopathological re-evaluation. Poor prognosis, effect of specific prognostic indices, relevance of histopathological sub-classification, and response level to first-line treatment on outcomes were confirmed. Immune disorders amongst patients require further examination involving genetic studies and identification of associated immunosuppressive factors.

Impact of comorbidities on anti-TNFα response and relapse in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: the VERNE study.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of comorbidities and extraintestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease on the response of patients with inflammatory bowel disease to antitumour necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNFα) therapy. Design: Data from 310 patients (194 with Crohn's disease and 116 with ulcerative colitis) treated consecutively with the first anti-TNFα in 24 Spanish hospitals were retrospectively analysed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the associations between inflammatory bowel disease comorbidities and extraintestinal manifestations with anti-TNFα treatment outcomes. Key clinical features, such as type of inflammatory bowel disease and concomitant treatments, were included as fixed factors in the model. Results: Multivariate logistic regression analyses (OR, 95% CI) showed that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (2.67, 1.33 to 5.35) and hepato-pancreato-biliary diseases (1.87, 1.48 to 2.36) were significantly associated with primary non-response to anti-TNFα, as was the use of corticosteroids and the type of inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis vs Crohn's disease). It was also found that myocardial infarction (3.30, 1.48 to 7.35) and skin disease (2.73, 1.42 to 5.25) were significantly associated with loss of response, along with the use of corticosteroids and the type of inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis vs Crohn's disease). Conclusions: Our results suggest that the presence of some comorbidities in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and myocardial infarction, and of certain extraintestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease, such as hepato-pancreato-biliary conditions and skin diseases, appear to be related to failure to anti-TNFα treatment. Therefore, their presence should be considered when choosing a treatment. Trial registration number: NCT02861118.

Prevalence and characterization of breakthrough pain in patients with cancer in Spain: the CARPE-DIO study.

We aimed to evaluate the prevalence, characteristics and impact of breakthrough pain (BTP) in patients with cancer attending the main specialties involved in the diagnosis and management of BTP in Spain using a multicenter, observational, cross-sectional, multidisciplinary study. Investigators had to record all patients seen at the clinic during 1 month, determine whether the patients had cancer pain, and apply the Davies algorithm to ascertain whether the patients were suffering from BTP. Of the 3,765 patients with cancer, 1,117 (30%) had cancer-related pain, and of these patients, 539 had BTP (48%, 95%CI:45-51). The highest prevalence was found in patients from palliative care (61%, 95%CI:54-68), and the lowest was found in those from hematology (25%, 95%CI:20-31). Prevalence varied also according to sex and type of tumor. According to the Alberta Breakthrough Pain Assessment Tool duration, timing, frequency, location, severity, quality, causes, and predictability of the BTP varied greatly among these patients. BTP was moderate (Brief Pain Inventory [BPI]-severity median score = 5.3), and pain interference was moderate (BPI-interference median score = 6.1) with a greater interference with normal work, general activity, and enjoyment of life. Patients with BTP showed a mean ± standard deviation score of 28.5 ± 8.0 and 36.9 ± 9.5 in the physical and mental component, respectively, of the SF-12 questionnaire. In conclusion, prevalence of BTP among patients exhibiting cancer-related pain is high. Clinical presentation is heterogeneous, and therefore, BTP cannot be considered as a single entity. However, uniformly BTP has an important impact on a patient's functionality, which supports the need for early detection and treatment.

Orphan drugs revisited: cost-effectiveness analysis of the addition of mifamurtide to the conventional treatment of osteosarcoma.

INTRODUCTION: Mepact(®) (mifamurtide) is the first drug approved for the treatment of high-grade resectable non-metastatic osteosarcoma in patients aged 2-30 in the last 20 years. It follows a randomized clinical trial showing a statistically-significant and clinically-relevant decrease in the risk of death without compromising safety. AIM: This study assessed the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of mifamurtide. METHODS: The economic evaluation was done on a hypothetical cohort of young patients under the age of 30 with high-grade, non-metastatic, resectable osteosarcoma. Standard chemotherapy without mifamurtide was used as comparator. A Markov model was adapted using Spanish costs and the results of the INT-0133 Phase III study. The analysis has been carried out from the perspective of the Spanish National Health Service, with a time horizon of up to 60 years in the base analysis. RESULTS: The observed greater efficacy of mifamurtide in the trial translates into a gain of 3.03 (undiscounted) and 1.33 (discounted) quality-adjusted life years at an additional cost of €102,000. The estimated budgetary impact of using mifamurtide in 10-100% of the potential population would cost €671,000 and €6.7 million respectively. CONCLUSION: The cost per quality-adjusted life years gained with mifamurtide in Spain is in the low band (<€100,000) of the iCERs obtained by other orphan drugs and would have a limited and affordable cost in Spain.

[Cardiovascular complications at 1-year of follow-up in patients with atherothrombosis. On behalf of Spain's REACH Registry]. / Complicaciones cardiovasculares a un año de seguimiento en pacientes con aterotrombosis. Registro REACH España.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The REACH Registry is the largest worldwide designed to obtain information on cardiovascular risk factor control and preventive treatment in a population who have, or are at risk of having, symptoms of atherothrombosis. The objective of this study is to show the results of cardiovascular events obtained in a sample of the Spanish population at one year follow-up and intervention. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The REACH Spain registry is a prospective cohort study of subjects with vascular risk factors (ORF) for atherothrombosis or with symptomatic vascular disease (VD): coronary artery disease (CAD) and/or cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and/or peripheral artery disease (PAD). The main outcome measures were rates of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular (CV) death, and the overall combined CV death, myocardial infarction (MI), or stroke and CV hospitalization at one year follow-up. RESULTS: In Spain 2,516 patients were recruited and 2,252 completed one year follow-up, the mean age was 68,1 (73,8% men), 11,6% of subjects with ORF and 88,5% with VD, 55% with CAD, 33% with CVD and 17% with PAD. The annual rate of all-cause mortality in VD and ORF groups were 3,57% and 1,98% (NS) respectively, while for CV death they were 2,69% and 0,62% (P<.05) and for overall combined CV death myocardial infarction (MI), or stroke and CV hospitalization they were 15,34% and 5,47% (P=.0001). The annual rate of CV death for CAD, CVD and PAD groups were 3,47%, 2,78% and 1,46% respectively, and for the overall combined CV death, myocardial infarction (MI) , or stroke and CV hospitalization they were 18,52%, 13,75% and 14,52%. These event rates increased with the number of symptomatic arterial disease locations from 0,1,2 or 3 for CV death (0,62%, 2,46%, 3,55% and 4,32%, respectively P<.05) and for overall combined CV death myocardial infarction (MI), or stroke and CV hospitalization (5,50%, 4,18%, 20,59% y 19,40%, respectively P<.0001). At one year follow-up, 82,8% of the patients were with at least one antiplatelet drug and 86,2% were receiving lipid-lowering agents. CONCLUSIONS: The REACH Spain Registry at one year follow-up in patients with atherothrombotic disease or at risk of having symptoms of atherothrombosis shows a high rate of all-cause mortality and of overall combined major CV events, which is becoming higher as the number of symptomatic arterial disease locations increases.