Pharmacokinetics of Herb-Drug Interactions of Plumbagin and Tazemetostat in Rats by UPLC-MS/MS

OBJECTIVE: A sensitive and rapid UPLC-MS/MS method for determination of tazemetostat in rat plasma was developed, and the pharmacokinetics of herb-drug interactions (HDIs) of plumbagin (PLB) and tazemetostat was investigated. METHODS: After the rat plasma samples were precipitated by acetonitrile, tazemetostat and verubecestat (ISTD) were detected. Gradient elution was performed with 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile as mobile phases. The multi-reaction monitoring was used with ESI+ source, and the ion pairs for tazemetostat and ISTD were m/z 573.12→135.99 and m/z 410.10→124.00, respectively. 12 SD rats were randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group, 6 rats in each group. The rats in the experimental group were given PLB 100 mg/kg by gavage once a day for 7 consecutive days. The rats in the control group were given the same amount of 0.1% sodium carboxymethyl cellulose solution by gavage once a day for 7 consecutive days. At the seventh day, tazemetostat (80 mg/kg) was given and the blood was collected at different time points. The main parameters of pharmacokinetics were calculated and the herb-drug interactions (HDIs) were evaluated. RESULTS: In the calibrated range of 1–1000 ng/mL, tazemetostat had a good linearity. The extraction recovery was more than 84%, and the RSD of intra-batch and inter-batch precision were both less than 15%. The C(max) of tazemetostat in the experimental group was 32.48% higher than that in the control group, and the AUC((0-t)) and AUC((0−∞)) of tazemetostat in the experimental group were 46.24% and 46.67% higher than that in the control group, respectively, and the t(1/2) was prolonged from 10.56 h to 11.73 h. CONCLUSION: A simple, rapid and sensitive UPLC-MS/MS method for the determination of tazemetostat in rat plasma was established. PLB can inhibit the metabolism of tazemetostat and increase the plasma exposure of tazemetostat in rats.