Background:
To mitigate diabetes and its complications in cardiovascular diseases, the antidiabetic agent glimepiride is usually administered with ferulic acid concomitantly in clinics. However, both drugs are prone to be metabolized partly by CYP2C9, thus they have the potential drug-drug interaction affecting the safety and efficacy.
Objective:
This project aimed to evaluate the pharmacokinetic (PK) effects of ferulic acid (FA) on glimepiride (GLM) and its metabolite hydroxy glimepiride (OH-GLM) in plasma by using the HPLC-MS/MS method.
Methods:
Healthy male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into three groups. They received intragastric administration of 0.5% sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), low-dose FA (20 mg•kg-1), and high-dose FA (40 mg•kg-1) for 8 days, respectively. Rats were given 0.5% sodium CMC or FA on the last day and then uniformly given 1.0 mg•kg-1 glimepiride by gavage. Blood samples were obtained from retro-orbital plexus at the time points of 0.167, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 24 h after administration. Plasma samples were analyzed for GLM and its metabolite OH-GLM on an HPLC-MS/MS system.
Results:
No statistically significant difference was found in the effect of low-dose FA on the pharmacokinetics of GLM. High-dose FA significantly decreased Cmax of GLM by 30.05% and CLz/F of OH-GLM by 47.45%. It also increased Tmax and t1/2z of GLM by 95.87% and 140.00%.
Conclusion:
Low-dose FA did not alter GLM metabolism, while high-dose treatment of FA caused pharmacokinetics interaction with GLM in rats.