Effect of curcumin and pirfenidone on toxicokinetics of paraquat in rat by UPLC–MS/MS

Abstract

The rats were randomly divided into paraquat group, curcumin treatment group, and pirfenidone treatment group. The concentration of paraquat in rat plasma was determined by an ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) method over the range of 10–2000 ng mL−1. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a BEH HILIC (2.1 mm × 100 mm, 1.7 μm) column. The mobile phase was consisted of acetonitrile and 10 mm ammonium formate buffer (containing 0.1% formic acid) with gradient elution pumped at a flow rate of 0.4 mL min−1. Protein precipitation with acetonitrile was used as sample preparation. Compared with the paraquat group, there is statistical toxicokinetic difference for curcumin treatment group and pirfenidone treatment group, AUC(0 − t) decreased (P < 0.05), clearance (CL) increased (P < 0.05) for curcumin or pirfenidone treatment group, and Cmax decreased (P < 0.05) for curcumin treatment group. The results showed that treatment by curcumin and pirfenidone could relieve acute paraquat poisoning in rats.