Abstract
Context Hyperlipidaemia and hypertension are often treated together with curcumin and amlodipine. It is necessary to investigate the drug-drug interaction between curcumin and amlodipine. Objective The interaction between curcumin and amlodipine was investigated in rats and with rat liver microsomes. Methods The pharmacokinetics of amlodipine (1 mg/kg) was investigated in rats with or without curcumin pre-treatment (2 mg/kg), six rats in each group. The metabolic stability of amlodipine was investigated with rat liver microsomes. Results Curcumin significantly increased the C max (26.19 ± 2.21 versus 17.80 ± 1.56 μg/L), AUC(0-t) (507.27 ± 60.23 versus 238.68 ± 45.59 μg·h/L), and t1/2 (14.69 ± 1.64 versus 11.43 ± 1.20 h) of amlodipine (p < 0.05). The metabolic stability of amlodipine was significantly increased with the half-life time in rat liver microsomes increased from 34.23 ± 3.33 to 44.15 ± 4.12 min, and the intrinsic rate decreased from 40.49 ± 3.26 to 31.39 ± 2.78 μL/min/mg protein. Discussion and conclusions These results indicated that drug–drug interaction might appear during the co-administration of curcumin and amlodipine. The potential mechanism may be due to the inhibition of CYP3A4 by curcumin. Thus, this interaction should be given special attention in the clinic and needs further experiments to characterize the effect in humans.
Highlights
Curcumin is a kind of polyphenol isolated from Curcumae Longae Rhizoma Purveratum, which is usually used as a food colour, but is used in the clinic for the treatment and prevention of various diseases (Goel et al 2008)
Curcumin can inhibit the growth and invasion of human monocytic leukaemia SHI-1 cells by regulating MAPK and MMP signalling (Zhu et al 2020), it can inhibit the progression of breast cancer (Mittal et al 2020; Pereira et al 2020)
The intrinsic clearance rate of amlodipine was 40.49 ± 3.26 lL/min/mg protein, which significantly decreased to 31.39 ± 2.78 lL/min/mg protein after the administration of curcumin (p < 0.05). These results indicated an increase in the metabolic stability of amlodipine, which is consistent with the pharmacokinetic study
Summary
Curcumin is a kind of polyphenol isolated from Curcumae Longae Rhizoma Purveratum, which is usually used as a food colour, but is used in the clinic for the treatment and prevention of various diseases (Goel et al 2008). Curcumin is always used for the therapy of hyperlipidaemia, which makes it easier to combine with other drugs (Zingg et al 2013; Panahi et al 2018). Amlodipine is one of the most common drugs used for the treatment of hypertension, which is usually co-administrated with other hypolipidemic drugs, such as simvastatin (Fuhrmann et al 2019). Co-administration of different drugs could induce drug–drug interactions, which can affect the pharmacokinetics of drugs. Curcumin can be combined with amlodipine for the treatment of hyperlipidaemia and hypertension. It is necessary to investigate the drug–drug interaction between curcumin and amlodipine, which can directly affect the pharmacokinetic and pharmacological effect of amlodipine
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
