Xiao Huang

and 10 more

Aims: Voriconazole is the mainstay for the treatment for invasive fungal infections in heart transplant patients and significantly increase tacrolimus exposure because of drug-drug interaction (DDI). However, the magnitude of this DDI is highly variable and hard to predicted. The purpose of this study was to present the characteristics of DDI between tacrolimus and voriconazole, and further identify the predictors of tacrolimus dose modification. Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 69 heart transplant recipients without using voriconazole as the control and 68 patients received voriconazole treatment in voriconazole group. CYP3A4*1G, CYP3A5*3 and CYP2C19*2 or *3 were genotyped by Sanger sequencing. The requirement of tacrolimus dose for therapeutic concentrations and tacrolimus dose-corrected trough concentration (C0/D) before and after VRC administration were evaluated. Results: The DDI between tacrolimus and voriconazole was in a large inter-individual variability with more than ten-fold changes in tacrolimus dose (range 1.28–13.00) and C0/D (range 1.43–13.75). Besides, the fold changes of tacrolimus dose were associated with CYP2C19 genotype, which was significantly lower in CYP2C19 extensive metabolizers than that in CYP2C19 intermediate metabolizers or poor metabolizers (4.06±1.85 vs 5.49±2.47, p=0.0031). While no significant difference was found in both CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 genotypes. Moreover, CYP2C19 genotype and hematocrit were independent predicting factors for tacrolimus dose modification after voriconazole co-therapy. Conclusions: This study provided a potential basis for comprehensive factors to adjust tacrolimus dosage when co-administrated with voriconazole in individual patients. CYP2C19 genotype and hematocrit should be considered in tailoring tacrolimus dose.