Multi-compound and drug-combination pharmacokinetic research on Chinese herbal medicines

Abstract

Traditional medicine has provided a basis for health care and disease treatment to Chinese people for millennia, and herbal medicines are regulated as drug products in China. Chinese herbal medicines have two features. They normally possess very complex chemical composition. This makes the identification of the constituents that are together responsible for the therapeutic action of an herbal medicine challenging, because how to select compounds from an herbal medicine for pharmacodynamic study has been a big hurdle in such identification efforts. To this end, a multi-compound pharmacokinetic approach was established to identify potentially important compounds (bioavailable at the action loci with significant exposure levels after dosing an herbal medicine) and to characterize their pharmacokinetics and disposition. Another feature of Chinese herbal medicines is their typical use as or in combination therapies. Coadministration of complex natural products and conventional synthetic drugs is prevalent worldwide, even though it remains very controversial. Natural product–drug interactions have raised wide concerns about reduced drug efficacy or safety. However, growing evidence shows that incorporating Chinese herbal medicines into synthetic drug-based therapies delivers benefits in the treatment of many multifactorial diseases. To address this issue, a drug-combination pharmacokinetic approach was established to assess drug–drug interaction potential of herbal medicines and degree of pharmacokinetic compatibility for multi-herb combination and herbal medicine–synthetic drug combination therapies. In this review we describe the methodology, techniques, requirements, and applications of multi-compound and drug-combination pharmacokinetic research on Chinese herbal medicines and to discuss further development for these two types of pharmacokinetic research.

Study on Integrated Pharmacokinetics of the Component-Based Chinese Medicine of Ginkgo biloba Leaves Based on Nanocrystalline Solid Dispersion Technology

“…However, the T 1/2 of TLs was basically between 2 and 4 h, which belonged to the fast-metabolic compounds. 10 The pharmacokinetic properties of any single component could not be used to characterize the overall pharmacokinetic behavior of GBCCM. The multi-component integration based on the self-defined weight coefficient of the area under the curve (AUC 0-t ) was used to obtain the integrated pharmacokinetic parameters that took into account the characteristics of each component of GBCCM, which reflected the “Holistic View” of traditional Chinese medicine theory.…”

“…The multi-component integration based on the self-defined weight coefficient of the area under the curve (AUC 0-t ) was used to obtain the integrated pharmacokinetic parameters that took into account the characteristics of each component of GBCCM, which reflected the “Holistic View” of traditional Chinese medicine theory. 9 , 10 The self-defined weight coefficient method highlighted the influence of the ingredients with larger exposure levels, such as KMF and BB, on the overall exposure of GBCCM.…”

“…Multicomponent overall pharmacokinetics was to introduce the idea of “Holistic View” into the study of pharmacokinetics. 9 , 10 According to the weight contribution of each component to the overall drug metabolism, appropriate modeling method was select to integrate the pharmacokinetic parameters of each component, so as to obtain the maximum characterization of the overall disposal kinetic characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine in vivo. This study intends to use self-defined weight coefficient method according to AUC 0-t to investigate the integrated pharmacokinetics of GBCCM, which will provide data support for the development of new antihypertensive drugs.…”

Identification of pharmacokinetic markers for safflower injection using a combination of system pharmacology, multicomponent pharmacokinetics, and quantitative proteomics study

“…Among these studies, PK marker identification is considered a promising method for exploring the overall process of a complex TCM in vivo . Active ingredients with dominant contents and favorable PK properties (e.g., appropriate elimination half-life and remarkable dose-dependent systemic exposure) can be suitable PK markers for a certain TCM product ( Li et al, 2008 ; Li, 2017 ). Scientists aim to explore characteristic compounds as representative PK markers because they can represent therapeutic effects of the TCM preparation in vivo .…”

APS celebrates the 90th anniversary of SIMM

“…This rapid clinical approval has greatly improved the competitiveness of new drug molecules on the market. The new drug molecules currently under clinical research involve various types of diseases such as tumors, metabolic diseases, infections, autoimmune, respiratory, mental, allergic, neurological, Hematologic, digestive, cardiovascular, and urinary diseases [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Researching these different types of disorders, SIMM has developed 13 new drugs and 1 generic drug that have been approved for clinical and international registration in the United States, Japan, Europe, and many other countries around the world.…”