The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of apigenin on the pharmacokinetics of imatinib and N-desmethyl imatinib in rats. Healthy male SD rats were randomly divided into four groups: A group (the control group), B group (the long-term administration of 165 mg/kg apigenin for 15 days), C group (a single dose of 165 mg/kg apigenin), and D group (a single dose of 252 mg/kg apigenin). The serum concentrations of imatinib and N-desmethyl imatinib were measured by HPLC, and pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using DAS 3.0 software. The parameters of AUC(0−t), AUC(0−∞), T max, V z/F, and CLz/F for imatinib in group B were different from those in group A (P < 0.05). Besides, MRT(0−t) and MRT(0−∞) in groups C and D differed distinctly from those in group A as well. The parameters of AUC(0−t) and C max for N-desmethyl imatinib in group C were significantly lower than those in group A (P < 0.05); however, compared with groups B and D, the magnitude of effect was modest. Those results indicated that apigenin in the short-term study inhibited the metabolism of imatinib and its metabolite N-desmethyl imatinib, while in the long-term study the metabolism could be accelerated.

We used a sensitive and accurate method based on isotope dilution high-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (ID-LC-MS/MS) to determine the levels of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dGsn) and 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosin (8-oxo-Gsn) in various tissue specimens, plasma, and urine of hyperglycemic Sprague Dawley rats induced by streptozotocin (STZ). The oxidative DNA and RNA damages were observed in various organs and the amounts of 8-oxo-dGsn and 8-oxo-Gsn derived from DNA and RNA were increased with hyperglycemic status. In contrast to the results of the nucleic acid samples derived from tissues, the levels of 8-oxo-Gsn in urine and plasma were significantly higher compared with that of 8-oxo-dGsn, which most likely reflected the RNA damage that occurs more frequently compared with DNA damage. For the oxidative stress induced by hyperglycemia, 8-oxo-Gsn in urine may be a sensitive biomarker on the basis of the results in urine, plasma, and tissues. In addition, high levels of urinary 8-oxo-Gsn were observed before diabetic microvascular complications. Based on that the 8-oxo-dGsn was associated with diabetic nephropathy and RNA was more vulnerable to oxidative stress compared with DNA. We also propose that 8-oxo-Gsn is correlated with diabetic nephropathy and that 8-oxo-Gsn in urine could be a useful and sensitive marker of diabetic nephropathy.

The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of orally administered silybin on the pharmacokinetics of imatinib in rats and the metabolism of imatinib in human liver microsome and rat liver microsomes. Eighteen healthy male SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: group A (control group), group B (received multiple doses of 50 mg·kg(-1) silybin for 15 consecutive days), and group C (received a single dose of 50 mg·kg(-1) silybin). A single dose of imatinib was administered orally 30 min after administration of silybin (50 mg·kg(-1)). Imatinib plasma levels were measured by UPLC-MS/MS, and pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by DAS 3.0 software (Bontz Inc., Beijing, China). In addition, human and rat liver microsome were performed to determine the effects of silybin metabolism of imatinib in vitro. The multiple doses or single dose of 50 mg·kg(-1) silybin significantly decreased the area under the curve (0-t) of imatinib (p < 0.01). And the half-life (t1/2) of imatinib is significantly increased (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively). Also, silybin showed inhibitory effect on human and rat microsomes, the IC50 of silybin were 26.42 μmol·L(-1) and 49.12 μmol·L(-1) in human and rat liver microsomes, respectively. These results indicate that more attention should be paid to when imatinib is administrated combined with silybin.

CYP2C9 is an important member of the cytochrome P450 enzyme superfamily, and 57 cytochrome P450 2C9 alleles have been previously reported. To examine the enzymatic activity of the CYP2C9 alleles, kinetic parameters for 4'-hydroxyflurbiprofen were determined using recombinant human P450s CYP2C9 microsomes from insect cells Sf21 carrying wild-type CYP2C9*1 and other variants. The results showed that the enzyme activity of most of the variants decreased comparing with the wild type as the previous studies reported, while the enzyme activity of some of them increased, which were not in accordance with the previous researches. Of the 36 tested CYP2C9 allelic isoforms, two variants (CYP2C9*53 and CYP2C9*56) showed a higher intrinsic clearance value than the wild-type protein, especially for CYP2C9*56, exhibited much higher intrinsic clearance (197.3%) relative to wild-type CYP2C9*1, while the remaining 33 CYP2C9 allelic isoforms exhibited significantly decreased clearance values (from 0.6 to 83.8%) compared to CYP2C9*1. This study provided the most comprehensive data on the enzymatic activities of all reported CYP2C9 variants in the Chinese population with regard to the commonly used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, flurbiprofen (FP). The results indicated that most of the tested rare alleles decreased the catalytic activity of CYP2C9 variants toward FP hydroxylation in vitro. This is the first report of all these rare alleles for FP metabolism providing fundamental data for further clinical studies on CYP2C9 alleles for FP metabolism in vivo.

The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of orally administered genistein on the pharmacokinetics of imatinib and N-desmethyl imatinib in rats. Twenty-five healthy male SD (Sprague-Dawley) rats were randomly divided into five groups: A group (control group), B group (multiple dose of 100 mg/kg genistein for consecutive 15 days), C group (multiple dose of 50 mg/kg genistein for consecutive 15 days), D group (a single dose of 100 mg/kg genistein), and E group (a single dose of 50 mg/kg genistein). A single dose of imatinib is administered orally 30 min after administration of genistein (100 mg/kg or 50 mg/kg). The pharmacokinetic parameters of imatinib and N-desmethyl imatinib were calculated by DAS 3.0 software. The multiple dose of 100 mg/kg or 50 mg/kg genistein significantly (P < 0.05) decreased the AUC0−t and C max of imatinib. AUC0−t and the C max of N-desmethyl imatinib were also increased, but without any significant difference. However, the single dose of 100 mg/kg or 50 mg/kg genistein has no effect on the pharmacokinetics of imatinib and N-desmethyl imatinib. Those results indicated that multiple dose of genistein (100 mg/kg or 50 mg/kg) induces the metabolism of imatinib, while single dose of genistein has no effect.