Pharmacokinetic interactions induced by content variation of major water-soluble components of Danshen preparation in rats.

AIM: To investigate the pharmacokinetic interactions induced by content variation of the main water-soluble components of Danshen injection in rats. METHODS: Intravenous Danshen injection (control) or Danshen injection with danshensu (DSS), protocatechuic aldehyde (PAL), salvianolic acid A (Sal A) or salvianolic acid B (Sal B) were administered to female Sprague Dawley rats. Plasma concentrations of DSS, Sal A, PAL and its oxidative metabolite protocatechuic acid (PA) were analyzed simultaneously with LC-MS/MS; concentrations of Sal B were determined by the LC-MS method. Non-compartmental pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated and compared for identifying the pharmacokinetic interactions among these components. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the DSS, Sal A, and Sal B groups had significant increases in AUC(0-infinity) in response to elevated concentrations of PAL (by 78.1%, 51.0%, and 82.9%, respectively), while the clearances (CL) were markedly reduced (by 42.5%, 32.9%, and 46.8%, respectively). Similarly, Sal A increased the AUC(0-infinity) of DSS and Sal B (26.7% and 82.4%, respectively) and substantially decreased their clearances (21.4% and 45.6%, respectively). In addition, the pharmacokinetics of DSS and Sal B were significantly affected by the content variation of the other major components; the AUC(0-infinity) increased by 45.1% and 52.1%, respectively, the CL dropped by 29.6% and 27.1%, respectively, and the T(1/2) was decreased by 22.0% and 19.6%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Complex, extensive pharmacokinetic interactions were observed among the major water-soluble constituents in the Danshen injection. The content variation of PAL had the most significant effect on the pharmacokinetic behaviors of other major constituents. Furthermore, the pharmacokinetics of DSS and Sal B were the most susceptible to the content change of other components.

Using neural networks to determine the contribution of danshensu to its multiple cardiovascular activities in acute myocardial infarction rats.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Danshensu is an active water-soluble component from Salvia Miltiorrhiza, which has been demonstrated holding multiple mechanisms for the regulation of cardiovascular system. However, the relative contribution of danshensu to its multiple cardiovascular activities remains largely unknown. AIM OF THE STUDY: To develop an artificial neural network (NN) model simultaneously characterizing danshensu pharmacokinetics and multiple cardiovascular activities in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) rats. The relationship between danshensu pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) were evaluated using contribution values. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Danshensu was intraperitoneally injected at a single dose of 20mg/kg to AMI rats induced by coronary artery ligation. Plasma levels of danshensu, cardiac troponin T (cTnT), total homocysteine (Hcy) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were quantified. A back-propagation NN model was developed to characterize the PK and PD profiles of danshensu, in which the input variables contained time, area under plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) of danshensu and rat weights (covariate). Relative contribution of input variable to the output neurons was evaluated using neuron connection weights according to Garson's algorithm. The kinetics of contribution values was also compared and was validated using bootstrap resampling method. RESULTS: Danshensu exerted significant cTnT-lowering, Hcy- and GSH-elevating effect, and these marker profiles were well captured by the trained NN model. The calculation of relative contributions revealed that the effect of danshensu on the PD marker could be ranked as cTnT>GSH>Hcy, while the effect of AMI disease on the PD marker could be ranked in the following order: cTnT>Hcy>GSH. The activity of transsulfuration pathway was quite obvious under the AMI state. CONCLUSION: NN is a powerful tool linking PK and PD profiles of danshensu with multiple cardioprotective mechanisms, it provides a simple method for identifying and ranking relative contribution to the multiple therapeutic effects of the drug.