Bioavailability and Brain-Targeting of Puerarin by Different Administration Routes in Rats

Puerarin is a bioactive component which is widely used in the treatment of central nervous system diseases. With a growing number of adverse reactions to injections being reported in recent years, finding an effective way of administration is becoming increasingly urgent. In this investigation, ten rats were divided into two groups and treated with puerarin (7 mg/kg) via intravenous and intranasal administration. Samples were collected by microdialysis and tested by HPLC-MS/MS. The bioavailability and brain-targeting of Puerarin were studied. The AUCs of puerarin in brain were 28.44 ± 6.89 and 86.84 ± 23.50 min · μg/mL for the intravenous group and intranasal group, respectively. The MRTs in brain were 81.76 ± 11.46 and 186.43 ± 6.25 min for the intravenous group and intranasal group, respectively. The drug target indexes (DTI) were 1.87 and 13.94 % for the intravenous group and intranasal group, respectively. The results demonstrated that intranasal administration is an effective method for drug delivery and there is clinical potential for intranasal administration of puerarin.