title: In Vivo Study on the Pharmacological Interactions between a Chinese Herbal Formula ELP and Antiresorptive Drugs to Counteract Osteoporosis.
abstract: Antiresorptive drugs, alendronate and raloxifene, are effective in lowering bone mineral density (BMD) loss in postmenopausal women. However, long-term treatment may be associated with serious side effects. Our research group has recently discovered that a Chinese herbal formula, ELP, could significantly reduce BMD loss in animal and human studies. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the potential synergistic bone-protective effects of different herb-drug combinations using ovariectomized rats. To assess the efficacy of different combinations, the total BMD was monitored biweekly in the 8-week course of daily oral treatment. Bone microarchitecture, bone strength, and deoxypyridinoline level were also determined after 8 weeks. From our results, coadministration of ELP and raloxifene increased the total tibial BMD by 5.26% (2.5 mg/kg/day of raloxifene; P = 0.014) and 5.94% (0.25 mg/kg/day of raloxifene; P = 0.026) when compared with the respective dosage groups with raloxifene alone. Similar synergistic effects were also observed in BMD increase at distal femur (0.25 mg/kg/day; P = 0.001) and reduction in urinary deoxypyridinoline crosslink excretion (2.5 and 0.25 mg/kg/day; both P = 0.02). However, such interactions could not be observed in all alendronate-treated groups. Our data provide first evidence that ELP could synergistically enhance the therapeutic effects of raloxifene, so that the clinical dosage of raloxifene could be reduced.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong ; State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Chun-Hay
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: Wing-Sum
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Siu
authors.forename: Hing-Lok
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Si
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Wai-Ting
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Shum
authors.forename: Ching-Po
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Sau-Wan
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Jacqueline Chor-Wing
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Tam
authors.forename: Leung-Kim
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: Kwok-Pui
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.forename: Clara Bik-San
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Quan-Bin
authors.initials: QB
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Ping-Chung
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Leung