ABSTRACT
Gumiganghwal-tang is a traditional herbal medicine widely used for its anti-inflammatory,analgesic,and antipyretic effects.However,the safety and efficacy of its active ingredients based on an in vivo pharmacokinetic (PK) study have yet been investigated.We have established a sensitive and accurate UPLC-ESI-MS/MS method and conducted a PK study on 14 constituents of Gumiganghwal-tang through human plasma analysis.Analytical conditions were optimized according to the physicochemical prop-erties of the 14 compounds to facilitate efficient separation and eliminate overlap or interference be-tween peaks.KINETEX-C18 and lnertsil-C8 columns were used as UPLC stationary phases,and acetonitrile and aqueous formic acid were used as mobile phases.All the analytes were quantified with a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer using electrospray ionization in multiple reaction monitoring mode.The chromatograms of 14 bioactive compounds showed excellent elution and sensitivity,and each peak was selectively separated and quantified without interference with each other or impurities.The established analytical method was based on international guidelines and was successfully used to perform PK studies of 14 herbal ingredients in humans after oral administration with Gumiganghwal-tang tablets.The oral absorption of most active components of Gumiganghwal-tang was relatively rapid and remained considerably long in the body to be quantified in plasma up to 48 h after administration.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to compare pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters obtained using two newly developed assays,HPLC-UV and UPLC-ESI-MS/MS.Selection of assay and results obtained therefrom are very important in PK studies and can have a major impact on the PK-based clinical dose and usage settings.For this study,we developed two new methods that are most commonly used in biosample analysis and focused on PK parameters obtained from them.By HPLC-UV equipped with a Luna-C8 column using UV detector,cefprozil diastereomers were separated using water containing 2％ (V/V) acetic acid and acetonitrile as a mobile phase.By UPLC-ESI-MS/MS equipped with a HALO-C18column,cefprozil diastereomers were separated using 0.5％ (V/V) aqueous formic acid containing 5 mM ammonium-formate buffer and methanol as a mobile phase.Chromatograms showed high resolution,sensitivity,and selectivity without interference by plasma constituents.Both intra-and inter-day precisions (CV,％)were within 8.88％ for HPLC-UV and UPLC-ESI-MS/MS.Accuracy of both methods was 95.67％-107.50％.These two analytical methods satisfied the criteria of international guidance and could be successfully applied to PK study.Comparison of PK parameters between two assays confirmed that there is a dif-ference in the predicted minimum plasma concentrations at steady state,which may affect clinical dose and usage settings.Furthermore,we confirmed possible correlation between PK parameters and various biochemical parameters after oral administration of 1000 mg cefprozil to humans.