Cryptotanshinone and dihydrotanshinone I exhibit strong inhibition towards human liver microsome (HLM)-catalyzed propofol glucuronidation

Danshen is one of the most famous herbs in the world, and more and more danshen–prescribed drugs interactions have been reported in recent years. Evaluation of inhibition potential of danshen's major ingredients towards UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) will be helpful for understanding detailed mechanisms for danshen–drugs interaction. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate the inhibitory situation of cryptotanshinone and dihydrotanshinone I towards UGT enzyme-catalyzed propofol glucuronidation. In vitro the human liver microsome (HLM) incubation system was used, and the results showed that cryptotanshinone and dihydrotanshinone I exhibited dose-dependent inhibition towards HLM-catalyzed propofol glucuronidation. Dixon plot and Lineweaver–Burk plot showed that the inhibition type was best fit to competitive inhibition type for both cryptotanshinone and dihydrotanshinone I. The second plot using the slopes from the Lineweaver–Burk plot versus the concentrations of cryptotanshinone or dihydrotanshinone I was employed to calculate the inhibition parameters (Ki) to be 0.4 and 1.7 μM, respectively. Using the reported maximum plasma concentration (Cmax), the altered in vivo exposure of propofol increased by 10% and 8.2% for the co-administration of dihydrotanshinone I and cryptotanshinone, respectively. All these results indicated the possible danshen–propofol interaction due to the inhibition of dihydrotanshinone I and cryptotanshinone towards the glucuronidation reaction of propofol.

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