Development of a sensitive and rapid UHPLC–MS/MS method for simultaneous quantification of nine compounds in rat plasma and application in a comparative pharmacokinetic study after oral administration of Xuefu Zhuyu Decoction and nimodipine

Abstract

Xuefu Zhuyu Decoction (XFZYD) is a traditional Chinese medicine prescription used for the clinical treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The purpose of this work was to develop a sensitive and rapid UHPLC–MS/MS method to simultaneously study the pharmacokinetics of nimodipine and eight components of XFZYD, namely, amygdalin, hydroxysafflor yellow A, rutin, liquiritin, narirutin, naringin, neohesperidin and saikosaponin A, in rats with and without TBI. Multiple reaction monitoring was highly selective in the detection of nine analytes and the internal standard without obvious interference. The calibration curves displayed good linearity (r > 0.99) over a wide concentration range. The mean absolute recoveries of the nine analytes were 85–106%, and all matrix effects were in the range 80–120%. The intra‐ and inter‐day precision and accuracy were acceptable (RSD, <15%; RE%, ±20%). The validated method was successfully applied to compare the pharmacokinetics in four experimental groups, including control rats orally administered XFZYD and TBI model rats orally administered XFZYD, XFZYD and nimodipine, or nimodipine alone. The results showed that herb–drug interactions occurred between XFZYD and nimodipine in the treatment of TBI, nimodipine affected the pharmacokinetics of XFZYD, and XFZYD affected the absorption, distribution and excretion of nimodipine in vivo.

Bioinformatics Analysis of miRNAs and mRNAs Network-Xuefu Zhuyu Decoction Exerts Neuroprotection of Traumatic Brain Injury Mice in the Subacute Phase

“…It is necessary to consider the different natural therapeutic methods. Xuefu Zhuyu Decoction (XFZYD), a classical prescription, has been widely used in clinical to treat cardiac-cerebral vascular disease ( Zhang et al, 2004 ; Yang T. et al, 2019 ; Fu et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020a ). Our previous studies reported that XFZYD could reduce neurological deficits after TBI via inflammatory inhibition ( Xing et al, 2016 ) and improve the long-term prognosis post-TBI via synaptic regulation.…”