Abstract
Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is a popular herbal product used for hepatoprotection and chemoprevention. Two commercially available formulations are the crude extract, silymarin, and the semipurified product, silibinin. Silymarin consists of at least seven flavonolignans, of which the most prevalent are the diastereoisomers silybin A and silybin B; silibinin consists only of silybin A and silybin B. Based on a recent clinical study showing an interaction between a silymarin product and the CYP2C9 substrate losartan, the CYP2C9 inhibition properties of silybin A and silybin B and corresponding regioisomers, isosilybin A and isosilybin B, were evaluated using human liver microsomes (HLMs), recombinant CYP2C9 (rCYP2C9) enzymes, and the clinically relevant probe, (S)-warfarin. Silybin B was the most potent inhibitor in HLMs, followed by silybin A, isosilybin B, and isosilybin A (IC50 of 8.2, 18, 74, and >100 μM, respectively). Next, silybin A and silybin B were selected for further characterization. As with HLMs, silybin B was more potent than silybin A toward rCYP2C9*1 (6.7 versus 12 μM), rCYP2C9*2 (9.3 versus 19 μM), and rCYP2C9*3 (2.4 versus 9.3 μM). Using a matrix of five substrate (1–15 μM) and six inhibitor (1–80 μM) concentrations and HLMs, both diastereoisomers inhibited (S)-warfarin 7-hydroxylation in a manner described best by a mixed-type inhibition model (Ki values of 4.8 and 10 μM for silybin B and silybin A, respectively). These observations, combined with the high systemic silibinin concentrations (>5–75 μM) achieved in a phase I study involving prostate cancer patients, prompt clinical evaluation of a potential warfarin-milk thistle interaction.
Footnotes
This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health National Institute of General Medical Sciences [Grant R01-GM077482]; and the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute [Grant R01-CA104286].
Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at http://jpet.aspetjournals.org.
doi:10.1124/jpet.109.161927.
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ABBREVIATIONS:
- HLMs
- human liver microsomes
- r
- recombinant
- LC-MS/MS
- liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
- Clint
- intrinsic clearance
- ANOVA
- analysis of variance.
- Received September 23, 2009.
- Accepted November 23, 2009.
- Copyright © 2010 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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