ABSTRACT
Objective To study the effect of licorice on the pharmacokinetics of lovastatin in hyperlipidemic rat model.Methods Eighteen rats were randomly divided into control group (n =6) and test group (n =12).Rats in the test group were administered high fat diet to construct hyperlipidemic rat model.The 12 hyperlipidemic rats were then randomly divided into two groups:lovastatin group (n =6) and lovastatin combined with hcorice group (n =6).The rats in both groups were administered lovastatin capsule (20 mg/kg,0.5％ CMC-Na solution) after receiving licorice (for lovastatin combined with licorice group) or saline (for lovastatin group) for 7 days.Blood samples were collected at different time points before and after the administration of lovastatin capsule.The plasma concentrations of lovastatin and lovastatin acid (an active metabolite of lovastatin) were determined by LC-MS/MS method.Pharmacokinetics parameters were calculated using DAS 2.0 software,and the two groups were compared using SPSS 18.0 software.Results Long-term administration of licorice resulted in a significant increase in the plasma level of lovastatin acid in the hyperlipidemic rat,and the corresponding mean Cmax was approximately 80％ higher than that of the lovastatin group (P ＜ 0.05),while AUC0-t and AUC0-t increased by 115％ and 109％,respectively (P =0.005 and P =0.027).Cmax and AUC of lovastatin also increased,but there was no statistical significance (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion Licorice can inhibit the metabolism of lovastatin in hyperhpidemic rats and increase its exposure in vivo.