Collapsing mechanistic models: An application to dose selection for proof of concept of a selective irreversible antagonist

When data fail to support fully mechanistic models, alternative modeling strategies must be pursued. Simpler, more empirical models or the fixing of various rate constants are necessary to avoid over-parameterization. Fitting empirical models can dilute information, limit interpretation, and cloud inference. Fixing rate constants requires external, relevant, and reliable information on the mechanism and can introduce subjectivity as well as complicate determining the validity of model extrapolation. Furthermore, both these methods ignore the possibility that failure of the data to support the mechanistic model could contain information about the pharmacodynamic process. If the pathway has processes with "fast" dynamics, these steps could collapse yielding parametrically simpler classes of models. The collapsed models would retain the mechanistic interpretation of the full model, which is crucial for performing substantive inference, while reducing the number of parameters to be estimated. These concepts are illustrated through their manifestations on the dose-effect relationship and ensuing dose selection for a proof of concept study. Specifically, a mechanistic model for a selective irreversible antagonist was posited and candidate classes of models were derived utilizing "fast dynamics" assumptions. Model assessment determined the rate-limiting step facilitating pertinent inference with respect to the mechanism. For comparison, inference using a more empirical modeling strategy is also presented. A general solution for the collapse of the typical PK-PD model differential equations is provided in Appendix A.