Gut microbiota, a new frontier to understand traditional Chinese medicines

Gut microbial modulation in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced diarrhea with Shenzhu Capsule

Background

Gut microbiota plays a crucial role in the treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) diseases such as chemotherapy-induced diarrhea (CID). Shenzhu Capsule (SZC) is a Chinese herbal formula, which is composed of Renshen (rhizomes of Panax ginseng C. A. Mey.) and Baizhu (rhizomes of Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz.). Many Chinese traditional anti-diarrheal formulae that contain Renshen and Baizhu are capable of effectively alleviating CID. However, the efficacy in vivo and potential mechanism of SZC (the form of compatibility of Renshen and Baizhu) in the treatment of CID had not been elucidated. Here, this study aimed to investigate whether SZC exhibited the anti-diarrheal activity, and whether gut microbiota was involved in the therapeutic effect of SZC on CID.

Methods

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) and infrared spectroscopy (IR) analyses were used to characterize the extracted components in SZC. The mice were orally administrated with SZC in a preventive mode on the first 2 days of this experiment, and then intraperitoneally injected with 5-FU (40 mg/kg/d) for 6 days. SZC treatment lasted until the 3rd day after the end of 5-FU chemotherapy. We investigated the effects of SZC on body weights, diarrhea, thymus/spleen indexes, colonic tissues, and gut microbiota. Colonic histology was examined by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. 16S rDNA Amplicon Sequencing was used to analyze the gut microbial structure from fecal samples.

Results

SZC significantly increased the body weights and thymus/spleen indexes, alleviated diarrhea, and reversed histopathological changes of colons. In addition, gut microbiota analysis revealed that the overall structure of gut microbiota in CID mice was disturbed, but reversed to the normal state after SZC treatment. At genus level, SZC significantly inhibited the growth of some potential pathogens associated with diarrhea, such as Clostridiumm, Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, Alloprevotella, Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas.

Conclusions

In our study, these data illustrated that SZC inhibited the growth of many potential pathogens during the alleviation of CID. Gut microbial modulation was associated with the anti-diarrheal activity of SZC.

Metabolic profile analysis of Zhi-zi-chi decoction in feces of normal and chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced depression rats based on UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS/MS and multiple analytical strategies

Zhi-zi-chi decoction (ZZCD) has been verified by clinical application that it has definite curative effects and low side effects on depression. Because it is administered orally, the metabolites of ZZCD in the intestinal tract may influence the curative effects significantly. In this study, UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS/MS was used in combination with untargeted metabolomics-driven strategy, series product ion filtering and diagnostic fragment ion strategy for acquiring the comprehensive metabolic profile of ZZCD in feces of normal and chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced depression rats after oral administration, while the rat depression model was evaluated by behavior tests and plasma biochemical indices. Finally, a total of 56 compounds, including 35 prototype compounds and 21 metabolites, were identified or tentatively characterized in fecal samples. Among these, ten compounds were sieved as potential chemical markers that would reflect the antidepressant effect of ZZCD, which may offer important information for quality assessment, pharmacokinetic study and clinical security. In conclusion, the metabolic profile of ZZCD in normal and CUMS-induced depression rats would be helpful for the further study of anti-depression material basis and mechanism.

A total of 56 compounds from ZZCD were identified in feces of normal and depression rats. Then ten compounds were sieved as potential chemical markers that would reflect the antidepressant effect of ZZCD.