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Saccharin, the first artificial sweetener, was discovered in 1879 that do not have any calories and is approximately 200~700 times sweeter than sugar. Saccharin was the most common domestically produced sweetener in Korea in 2010, and it has been used as an alternative to sugar in many products. The interaction between artificial sweeteners and drugs may affect the drug metabolism in patients with diabetes, cancer, and liver damage, this interaction has not been clarified thus far. Here, we examined the effects of the potential saccharin-drug interaction on the activities of 5 cytochrome P450 (CYPs) in male ICR mice; further, we examined the effects of saccharin (4,000 mg/kg) on the pharmacokinetics of bupropion after pretreatment of mice with saccharin for 7 days and after concomitant administration of bupropion and saccharin. Our results showed saccharin did not have a significant effect on the 5 CYPs in the S9 fractions obtained from the liver of mice. In addition, we observed no differences in the pharmacokinetic parameters of bupropion between the control group and the groups pretreated with saccharin and that receiving concomitant administration of saccharin. Thus, our results showed that saccharin is safe and the risk of saccharin-drug interaction is very low.

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ObjectivesBanha-sasim-tang (BST), which consists of seven different herbs, is one of the most popular herbal formulae for treating gastrointestinal disorders in Eastern Asia. The commonly used herbal medicine is often co-administered with other therapeutic drugs, which raises the possibility of herb–drug interactions and may modify the clinical safety profile of therapeutic drugs.MethodsWe investigated the potential herb–drug interactions between BST extract and midazolam (MDZ) in mice. The area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) of MDZ and 1ʹ-hydroxymidazolam (1ʹ-OH-MDZ) was evaluated for both oral and intraperitoneal administration of MDZ, following oral administration of BST (0.5 and 1 g/kg).ResultsIt was found that the AUC of MDZ and 1ʹ-OH-MDZ was lower in case of oral administration of MDZ. Administration of BST extract was not associated with hepatic cytochrome P450 activity. BST extract induced a strong reduction in pH and it has been reported that oral mucosal absorption of MDZ is lower at low pH. The decreased absorption rate of MDZ might be caused by the ingredients of BST and may not be related to other factors such as increased excretion of MDZ by P-glycoprotein.ConclusionsThe altered pharmacokinetics of midazolam caused by co-administration with BST in vivo could be attributed to a decrease in pH and subsequent reduction of MDZ absorption rate.

: High-resolution quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (HRMS), with high-resolution (> 10,000 at full-width at half-maximum) and accurate mass (< 5 ppm deviation) capabilities, plays an important role in the structural elucidation of drug metabolites in the pharmaceutical industry. ML106, a derivative of imidazobenzimidazole, decreased melanin content and tyrosinase activity in a dose-dependent manner. Here, we investigated the phase 1 metabolic pathway of ML106 using HRMS in human liver microsomes (HLMs) and recombinant cDNA-expressed cytochrome P450 (CYP). After the incubation of ML106 with pooled HLMs and recombinant cDNA-expressed CYP in the presence of NADPH, five phase 1 metabolites, including three mono-hydroxylated metabolites (M1-3) and two di-hydroxylated metabolites (M4 and M5), were investigated. The metabolite structures were postulated by the elucidation of protonated mass spectra using HRMS. The CYP isoforms related to the hydroxylation of ML106 were studied after incubation with recombinant cDNA-expressed CYP. Here, we identified the phase 1 metabolic pathway of ML106 induced by CYP in HLMs.