Physiological adaptations affecting drug pharmacokinetics in space: what
do we really know? A critical review of the literature.
Abstract
As human spaceflight continues with extended mission durations, the
demand of effective and safe drugs is going to increase. To date, the
medications used during missions (for space motion sickness, sleep
disturbances, allergies, pain and sinus congestion) are administered
under the assumption that they act similarly as on the Earth. During
spaceflights however fluid shifts, muscle and bone loss, immune system
dysregulation and changes in the gastrointestinal tract and metabolism
are documented. These alterations may change the pharmacokinetics (PK)
and pharmacodynamics. The information gained from bed-rest studies and
from inflight observations is partial and demonstrates variability in
drug PK. The objectives of this review are to report: i) the impact of
the space environmental stressors on human physiology in relation to PK;
ii) the state-of-the-art on experimental data in space and/or in
ground-based models; iii) the validation of ground-based models for PK
studies; and iv) the identification of possible research gaps.