A comprehensive review of recent studies on pharmacokinetics of traditional Chinese medicines (2014–2017) and perspectives

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) have a long history for safely treating human diseases. Unlike western medicine, TCMs usually contain multiple components synergistically and holistically acting on the diseases. It remains a big challenge to represent rationally the in vivo process of multiple components of TCMs for understanding the relationship between administration and therapeutic effects. For years, efforts were always made to face the challenge, and the achievements were obvious. Here, we give an comprehensive overview of the recent investigation progress (from 2015 to 2017, except the part of 'integrated pharmacokinetics of TCMs' from 2014 to 2017 and the part of 'reverse pharmacokinetics in drug discovery from natural medicines' in 2014) on pharmacokinetics of TCMs, mainly referring to the following six aspects: (1) classical pharmacokinetic studies on TCMs; (2) absorbed components and metabolites identification of TCMs; (3) pharmacokinetic herb-drug interactions and herb-herb interactions with TCMs; (4) integrated pharmacokinetics of TCMs; (5) pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic combination studies to dissect the action mechanisms of TCMs; and (6) reverse pharmacokinetics in drug discovery from natural medicines. Finally, based on the insights from the recent progress and our latest efforts, we propose new perspectives on the integrated pharmacokinetics of TCMs.

Simultaneous Determination of Chlorogenic Acid Isomers and Metabolites in Rat Plasma Using LC-MS/MS and Its Application to A Pharmacokinetic Study Following Oral Administration of Stauntonia Hexaphylla Leaf Extract (YRA-1909) to Rats

“…However, typical pharmacokinetic studies can be difficult to apply to herbal drugs that consist of multiple constituents, with frequently unidentified pharmacologically active components. As such, simultaneous determination of the various potential active constituents, major constituents, and/or their metabolites is recommended for the satisfactory pharmacokinetic evaluation of herbal drugs [ 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”

Development of a HPLC‐MS/MS Method to Determine 11 Bioactive Compounds in Tongmai Yangxin Pill and Application to a Pharmacokinetic Study in Rats

“…Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a precious treasure of nature. TCMs have been used in clinical for thousands of years and attracting rising attentions due to the treatment of divers diseases successfully with minimum side effects [ 1 – 3 ]. TCM prescription, the most commonly used form in clinical medication, has multicomponents and multitargets [ 4 ].…”

“…PK of TCMs focuses on quantitatively studies the laws of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion in a living organism. PK study of multicomponents of TCM prescription has been one of the important research aspects of modernization of TCMs [ 1 ]. The PK data could elucidate the substance basis and reveal the scientific connotation of TCMs.…”

An Integrated Pharmacokinetic Study of an Acanthopanax senticosus Extract Preparation by Combination of Virtual Screening, Systems Pharmacology, and Multi-Component Pharmacokinetics in Rats

“…It is based on the multi-components PK, as well as takes into account the pharmacological effects and the contribution weights of the multi-components to the treatment effects. Thus, the integrated PK parameters could be helpful for the dosage regimen design of complex TCMs' preparations (Yao et al, 2017;Shi et al, 2018;Yao et al, 2018;Huang et al, 2019). In the evaluation of efficacy, besides in vivo and in vitro experiments, systems pharmacology has received more and more attention due to its serviceability on predicting the therapeutic effects and mechanisms of multiple ingredients in TCMs (Fu et al, 2014;Liu et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2016).…”