A study conducted by the Pediatric Trials Network (PTN) has resulted in a labelling change for a widely used drug.

Lisinopril is an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor that is commonly prescribed to treat high blood pressure or heart failure in adults. It is also given to children who have hypertension, including children who have undergone kidney transplants. As with many other drugs, however, there has been little research to suggest the optimal dose for pediatric transplant patients. The PTN was established to answer these types of questions about drugs given to children and adolescents.

“There is a great medical need but a small market for these types of studies,” said Daniel Benjamin, Jr., MD, MPH, PhD, the PTN’s principal investigator (pictured). “This is why the PTN was formed—to conduct the studies that no one else will.”

A study led by DCRI researcher Uptal Patel, MD, and other researchers for the PTN recently resulted in a decision by the the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to update the label for lisinopril. In addition to Patel, the study’s authors included Howard Trachtman, MD, of New York University; Adam Frymoyer, MD, of Stanford University; Laurence Greenbaum, MD, PhD, of Emory University; Daniel Feig, MD, PhD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham; Debbie Gipson, MD, of the University of Michigan; Bradley Warady, MD, of Children’s Mercy Hospital of Kansas City; Jens Goebel, MD, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital; and George Schartz, MD, of the University of Rochester.

The study was a multicenter, open-label pharmacokinetic study of daily oral lisinopril in 22 children, aged 7–17 years, with stable kidney function following transplant.

The researchers found that the pharmacokinetics of lisinopril in children who underwent kidney transplant were similar to hypertensive children who did not receive kidney transplants. Lisinopril was generally well tolerated by the patients and was accompanied by a lowering of blood pressure at approved pediatric doses in the study population.

The results of the study were published in the July 2015 issue of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

Approximately 1,200 children in the United States develop end-stage renal disease (ESRD) each year. Because kidney transplantation has become the primary method of treating ESRD for children, many of these patients will be prescribed lisinopril. As a result of the FDA’s recent decision, Benjamin noted, doctors will now have a better understanding of the correct dose.

“This has been a problem for over 60 years, and we’re only now addressing it,” he said. “With the PTN, we now a have a vehicle to make those changes.”