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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

An Intestine/Liver Microphysiological System for Drug Pharmacokinetic and Toxicological Assessment
Published on: December 3, 2020
Absence of time-dependent artesunate pharmacokinetics in healthy subjects during 5-day oral administration
L T Diem Thuy1, L Ngoc Hung, P T Danh
1Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Pharmacology and Toxicology Unit, Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, Pathumthani, Thailand.
Aim:
The aim of the present study was to investigate the existence of time-dependent pharmacokinetics of artesunate (ARS) during 5 consecutive days of oral administration to 10 healthy Vietnamese subjects (aged 21-52 years and weighing 49-90 kg).
Methods:
Each volunteer received 200 mg oral doses of ARS once daily for 5 consecutive days. Blood samples (3 ml each) were collected on days 1 and 5 at 0 (before dosing), 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 h after drug administration. During days 2, 3, and 4, the same volumes of blood were collected at 0, 1, 2, and 4 h after dosing. Plasma ARS and dihydroartemisinin (DHA) were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS).
Results:
Results did not show evidence of time-dependency for ARS or the active plasma metabolite DHA. There were no differences in the concentrations of ARS and DHA at all sampling times on days 1 and 5. In addition, the pharmacokinetics of both compounds were similar on days 1 and 5. This finding confirms that the enzyme auto-induction in drug metabolism may not be characteristic of the endoperoxide sesquiterpene antimalarial group.
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