title: Preliminary evaluation of the interactions of Panax ginseng and Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge with 5-fluorouracil on pharmacokinetics in rats and pharmacodynamics in human cells.
abstract: An increasing number of cancer patients are using herbs in combination with conventional chemotherapeutic treatment. It is therefore important to study the potential consequences of the interactions between herbs and anticancer drugs. The effects of extracts from Panax ginseng (PGS) and Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (SMB) on the pharmacokinetics of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) were performed in vivo and detected by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), while, an ATP assay was used to study the pharmacodynamic interactions in vitro. The results of the pharmacokinetic experiments showed a significant increase in the elimination half-life (t1/2(k e )) of 5-FU in the PGS-pretreated group and in the area under the curve (AUC) in the SMB-pretreated group compared with the control group. However, after SMB pretreatment, weight loss was observed in rats. The results of pharmacodynamic experiments showed that neither PGS nor SMB, when used alone, directly inhibited cancer cell growth at 0.1-100 μg/ml. Moreover, PGS had a synergistic cytotoxic effect with 5-FU on human gastric cancer cells but not on normal gastric cells. The results imply that when combined with 5-FU, PGS may be a better candidate for further study. This study might provide insights for the selection of herbal-chemotherapy agent interactions.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Radiopharmaceuticals, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chenxin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Jinping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: Meilin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Jinglei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Weihu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Weidong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000032:analysis / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D004357:Drug Synergism; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000032:analysis / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D005894:Panax / Q000737:chemistry*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D027561:Salvia miltiorrhiza / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D005472:Fluorouracil