Preclinical Pharmacokinetic Evaluation of β-Lapachone: Characteristics of Oral Bioavailability and First-Pass Metabolism in Rats

${\beta}$-Lapachone has drawn increasing attention as an anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer drug. However, its oral bioavailability has not been yet assessed, which might be useful to develop efficient dosage forms possibly required for non-clinical and clinical studies and future market. The aim of the present study was thus to investigate pharmacokinetic properties of ${\beta}$-lapachone as well as its first-pass metabolism in the liver, and small and large intestines after oral administration to measure the absolute bioavailability in rats. A sensitive HPLC method was developed to evaluate levels of ${\beta}$-lapachone in plasma and organ homogenates. The drug degradation profiles were examined in plasma to assess the stability of the drug and in liver and intestinal homogenates to evaluate first-pass metabolism. Pharmacokinetic profiles were obtained after oral and intravenous administration of ${\beta}$-lapachone at doses of 40 mg/kg and 1.5 mg/kg, respectively. The measured oral bioavailability of ${\beta}$-lapachone was 15.5%. The considerable degradation of ${\beta}$-lapachone was seen in the organ homogenates but the drug was quite stable in plasma. In conclusion, we suggest that the fairly low oral bioavailability of ${\beta}$-lapachone may be resulted from the first-pass metabolic degradation of ${\beta}$-lapachone in the liver, small and large intestinal tracts and its low aqueous solubility.