3.6 Evaluation of TA pharmacokinetics in rats
Bioactive compounds with excellent pharmacokinetic properties greatly increase the possibility of becoming new drugs. Since TA exhibited potent efficacy against pancreatic cancer both in vitro andin vivo , we also evaluated the pharmacokinetic properties of TA in Sprague-Dawley rats. As shown in Figure 6a, our studies indicated that the pharmacokinetic profiles of TA in rats after intravenous (i.v.) administration exhibited linear pharmacokinetics. However, we found that TA was slowly absorbed after intraperitoneal administration, which might be due to the poor water solubility of TA. After the sacrifice of the animals, tissue samples were collected to measure the tissue distribution levels of TA. Importantly, we found that TA showed good pancreatic tissue specificity (Figure 6b), which was beneficial to the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Moreover, pharmacokinetic parameters of TA after intravenous injection in rats were within the acceptance range (Figure 6c), suggesting that TA could be a potential drug candidate in pancreatic cancer.