In nlmixrdevelopment/nlmixr: Nonlinear Mixed Effects Models in Population PK/PD

knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>",
  message = FALSE,
  warning = FALSE,
  out.width = "100%"
  )

## These options cache the models and the model simulations in R
## To run the actual models on your system, take the save options off.
## nlmixrVersion <- as.character(packageVersion("nlmixr"));
## options(nlmixr.save=TRUE,
##         nlmixr.save.dir=file.path(system.file(package="nlmixr"), nlmixrVersion));
## if (!dir.exists(getOption("nlmixr.save.dir")))
##     dir.create(getOption("nlmixr.save.dir"))

Multiple endpoints

Joint PK/PD models, or PK/PD models where you fix certain components are common in pharmacometrics. A classic example, (provided by Tomoo Funaki and Nick Holford) is Warfarin.

library(nlmixr)
library(ggplot2)

In this example, we have a transit-compartment (from depot to gut to central volume) PK model and an effect compartment for the PCA measurement.

Below is an illustrated example of a model that can be applied to the data:

pk.turnover.emax <- function() {
  ini({
    tktr <- log(1)
    tka <- log(1)
    tcl <- log(0.1)
    tv <- log(10)
    ##
    eta.ktr ~ 1
    eta.ka ~ 1
    eta.cl ~ 2
    eta.v ~ 1
    prop.err <- 0.1
    pkadd.err <- 0.1
    ##
    temax <- logit(0.8)
    #temax <- 7.5
    tec50 <- log(0.5)
    tkout <- log(0.05)
    te0 <- log(100)
    ##
    eta.emax ~ .5
    eta.ec50  ~ .5
    eta.kout ~ .5
    eta.e0 ~ .5
    ##
    pdadd.err <- 10
  })
  model({
    ktr <- exp(tktr + eta.ktr)
    ka <- exp(tka + eta.ka)
    cl <- exp(tcl + eta.cl)
    v <- exp(tv + eta.v)
    ##
    #poplogit = log(temax/(1-temax))
    emax=expit(temax+eta.emax)
    #logit=temax+eta.emax
    ec50 =  exp(tec50 + eta.ec50)
    kout = exp(tkout + eta.kout)
    e0 = exp(te0 + eta.e0)
    ##
    DCP = center/v
    PD=1-emax*DCP/(ec50+DCP)
    ##
    effect(0) = e0
    kin = e0*kout
    ##
    d/dt(depot) = -ktr * depot
    d/dt(gut) =  ktr * depot -ka * gut
    d/dt(center) =  ka * gut - cl / v * center
    d/dt(effect) = kin*PD -kout*effect
    ##
    cp = center / v
    cp ~ prop(prop.err) + add(pkadd.err)
    effect ~ add(pdadd.err)
  })
}

Notice there are two endpoints in the model cp and effect. Both are modeled in nlmixr using the ~ "modeled by" specification.

To see more about how nlmixr will handle the multiple compartment model, it is quite informative to parse the model and print the information about that model. In this case an initial parsing would give:

ui <- nlmixr(pk.turnover.emax)
ui

In the middle of the printout, it shows how the data must be formatted (using the cmt and dvid data items) to allow nlmixr to model the multiple endpoint appropriately.

Of course if you are interested you can directly access the information in ui$multipleEndpoint.

ui$multipleEndpoint

Notice that the cmt and dvid items can use the named variables directly as either the cmt or dvid specification. This flexible notation makes it so you do not have to rename your compartments to run nlmixr model functions.

The other thing to note is that the cp is specified by an ODE compartment above the number of compartments defined in the RxODE part of the nlmixr model. This is because cp is not a defined compartment, but a related variable cp.

The last thing to notice that the cmt items are numbered cmt=5 for cp or cmt=4 for effect even though they were specified in the model first by cp and cmt. This ordering is because effect is a compartment in the RxODE system. Of course cp is related to the compartment central, and it may make more sense to pair cp with the central compartment.

If this is something you want to have you can specify the compartment to relate the effect to by the | operator. In this case you would change

cp ~ prop(prop.err) + add(pkadd.err)

cp ~ prop(prop.err) + add(pkadd.err) | central

With this change, the model could be updated to:

pk.turnover.emax2 <- function() {
  ini({
    tktr <- log(1)
    tka <- log(1)
    tcl <- log(0.1)
    tv <- log(10)
    ##
    eta.ktr ~ 1
    eta.ka ~ 1
    eta.cl ~ 2
    eta.v ~ 1
    prop.err <- 0.1
    pkadd.err <- 0.1
    ##
    temax <- logit(0.8)
    tec50 <- log(0.5)
    tkout <- log(0.05)
    te0 <- log(100)
    ##
    eta.emax ~ .5
    eta.ec50  ~ .5
    eta.kout ~ .5
    eta.e0 ~ .5
    ##
    pdadd.err <- 10
  })
  model({
    ktr <- exp(tktr + eta.ktr)
    ka <- exp(tka + eta.ka)
    cl <- exp(tcl + eta.cl)
    v <- exp(tv + eta.v)
    ##
    emax=expit(temax+eta.emax)
    ec50 =  exp(tec50 + eta.ec50)
    kout = exp(tkout + eta.kout)
    e0 = exp(te0 + eta.e0)
    ##
    DCP = center/v
    PD=1-emax*DCP/(ec50+DCP)
    ##
    effect(0) = e0
    kin = e0*kout
    ##
    d/dt(depot) = -ktr * depot
    d/dt(gut) =  ktr * depot -ka * gut
    d/dt(center) =  ka * gut - cl / v * center
    d/dt(effect) = kin*PD -kout*effect
    ##
    cp = center / v
    cp ~ prop(prop.err) + add(pkadd.err) | center
    effect ~ add(pdadd.err)
  })
}
ui2 <- nlmixr(pk.turnover.emax2)
ui2$multipleEndpoint

Notice in this case the cmt variables are numbered sequentially and the cp variable matches the center compartment.

DVID vs CMT, which one is used

When dvid and cmt are combined in the same dataset, the cmt data item is always used on the event information and the dvid is used on the observations. nlmixr expects the cmt data item to match the dvid item for observations OR to be either zero or one for the dvid to replace the cmt information.

If you do not wish to use dvid items to define multiple endpoints in nlmixr, you can set the following option:

options(RxODE.combine.dvid=FALSE)
ui2$multipleEndpoint

Then only cmt items are used for the multiple endpoint models. Of course you can turn it on or off for different models if you wish:

options(RxODE.combine.dvid=TRUE)
ui2$multipleEndpoint

Running a multiple endpoint model

With this information, we can use the built-in warfarin dataset in nlmixr:

summary(warfarin)

Since dvid specifies pca as the effect endpoint, you can update the model to be more explicit making one last change:

cp ~ prop(prop.err) + add(pkadd.err)
effect ~ add(pdadd.err)

cp ~ prop(prop.err) + add(pkadd.err)
effect ~ add(pdadd.err)  | pca

pk.turnover.emax3 <- function() {
  ini({
    tktr <- log(1)
    tka <- log(1)
    tcl <- log(0.1)
    tv <- log(10)
    ##
    eta.ktr ~ 1
    eta.ka ~ 1
    eta.cl ~ 2
    eta.v ~ 1
    prop.err <- 0.1
    pkadd.err <- 0.1
    ##
    temax <- logit(0.8)
    tec50 <- log(0.5)
    tkout <- log(0.05)
    te0 <- log(100)
    ##
    eta.emax ~ .5
    eta.ec50  ~ .5
    eta.kout ~ .5
    eta.e0 ~ .5
    ##
    pdadd.err <- 10
  })
  model({
    ktr <- exp(tktr + eta.ktr)
    ka <- exp(tka + eta.ka)
    cl <- exp(tcl + eta.cl)
    v <- exp(tv + eta.v)
    emax = expit(temax+eta.emax)
    ec50 =  exp(tec50 + eta.ec50)
    kout = exp(tkout + eta.kout)
    e0 = exp(te0 + eta.e0)
    ##
    DCP = center/v
    PD=1-emax*DCP/(ec50+DCP)
    ##
    effect(0) = e0
    kin = e0*kout
    ##
    d/dt(depot) = -ktr * depot
    d/dt(gut) =  ktr * depot -ka * gut
    d/dt(center) =  ka * gut - cl / v * center
    d/dt(effect) = kin*PD -kout*effect
    ##
    cp = center / v
    cp ~ prop(prop.err) + add(pkadd.err)
    effect ~ add(pdadd.err) | pca
  })
}

Run the models with SAEM

fit.TOS <- nlmixr(pk.turnover.emax3, warfarin, "saem", control=list(print=0),
                  table=list(cwres=TRUE, npde=TRUE))

print(fit.TOS)

SAEM Diagnostic plots

plot(fit.TOS);


v1s <- nlmixr::vpc(fit.TOS, show=list(obs_dv=T), scales="free_y") +
  ylab("Warfarin Cp [mg/L] or PCA") +
  xlab("Time [h]")

v2s <- nlmixr::vpc(fit.TOS, show=list(obs_dv=T), pred_corr = TRUE) +
  ylab("Prediction Corrected Warfarin Cp [mg/L] or PCA") +
  xlab("Time [h]")

library(patchwork)
v1s / v2s

FOCEi fits

## FOCEi fit/vpcs
fit.TOF <- nlmixr(pk.turnover.emax3, warfarin, "focei", control=list(print=0),
                  table=list(cwres=TRUE, npde=TRUE));

FOCEi Diagnostic Plots

print(fit.TOF)
plot(fit.TOF)

v1f <- nlmixr::vpc(fit.TOF, show=list(obs_dv=T), scales="free_y") +
  ylab("Warfarin Cp [mg/L] or PCA") +
  xlab("Time [h]")

v2f <- nlmixr::vpc(fit.TOF, show=list(obs_dv=T), pred_corr = TRUE) +
  ylab("Prediction Corrected Warfarin Cp [mg/L] or PCA") +
  xlab("Time [h]")

v1f / v2f