Comparative pharmacokinetics of nine major bioactive components in normal and ulcerative colitis rats after oral administration of Lizhong decoction extracts by UPLC-TQ-MS/MS

Comparison of pharmacokinetic profiles of seven major bioactive components in normal and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) rats after oral administration of Ling-Gui-Zhu-Gan decoction by UPLC-MS/MS

A sensitive and rapid ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was hereby developed for the determination of seven components, namely, glycyrrhizic acid, glycyrrhetinic acid, dehydrotumulosic acid, isoliquiritin, liquiritin, atractylenolide III, and cinnamic acid, in the plasma of rats after the oral administration of Ling-Gui-Zhu-Gan decoction (LGZGD). Besides, this very method was methodologically validated for specificity, linearity, inter-day and intra-day precision, accuracy, matrix effect, extraction recovery, and stability. It was also successfully used for the first time to compare the pharmacokinetic characteristics of the seven components after oral administration of LGZGD to normal rats and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) rats. The results indicated significant differences between the pharmacokinetic characteristics of normal and NAFLD rats. To further reveal the different pharmacokinetic behaviors, the expressions of enzymes and transporters in the liver of normal and NAFLD rats were detected using UPLC-MS/MS. In the NAFLD rats, UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1-1 (UGT1A1) and nine transporters were significantly inhibited and a positive correlation was observed between them and the AUC of the major components. The present results indicate that the pharmacokinetic differences between the normal and NAFLD rats might be attributed to the significant lower expression levels of both the metabolic enzyme UGT1A1 and nine transporter proteins in the NAFLD rats than in the normal rats. Meanwhile, UGT1A1 and the nine transporter proteins might be used as potential biomarkers to assess the ameliorative effect of LGZGD on NAFLD, which could provide useful information to guide the clinical application of LGZGD.

Chinese herbal medicines for treating ulcerative colitis via regulating gut microbiota-intestinal immunity axis

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of types of inflammatory bowel disease with high recurrence. Recent studies have highlighted that microbial dysbiosis as well as abnormal gut immunity are crucial factors that initiate a series of inflammatory responses in the UC. Modulating the gut microbiota-intestinal immunity loop has been suggested as one of key strategies for relieving UC. Many Chinese herbal medicines including some of single herb, herbal formulas and the derived constituents have been reported with protective effect against UC through modulating gut microbiome and intestinal immunity. Some clinical trials have shown promising results. This review thus focused on the current knowledge on using Chinese herbal medicines for treating UC from the mechanism aspects of regulating intestinal homeostasis involving microbiota and gut immunity. The existing clinical trials are also summarized.

Holism of Chinese herbal medicine prescriptions for inflammatory bowel disease: A review based on clinical evidence and experimental research

BACKGROUND

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic nonspecific inflammatory disease that causes a heavy burden and lacks effective treatments. Chinese herbal medicine prescriptions (CHMPs), which are characterized by a synergistic usage of herbs, are widely used in the management of IBD. The molecular mechanisms of action of CHMP are still ambiguous as the canonical "one-compound-one-target" approach has difficulty describing the dynamic bioreactions among CHMP objects. It seems more flexible to define the holism of CHMP for IBD by employing high-throughput analysis. However, studies that discuss the development of CHMP in treating IBD in a holistic view are still lacking.

PURPOSE

This review appraised preclinical and clinical research to fully describe the anti-IBD capacity of CHMPs and discussed CHMPs' holistic characteristics that can contribute to better management of IBD.

METHODS & RESULTS

We screened clinical and preclinical references of CHMP being used as treatments for IBD. We discussed the complexity of IBD and the development of CHMP to present the sophistication of CHMP treatments. To describe the clinical effectiveness of CHMPs against IBD, we performed an umbrella review of CHMP-associated META analyses, in which 1174 records were filtered down to 12 references. Then, we discussed 14 kinds of CHMPs that had a long history of use and analyzed their mechanisms of action. Representative herbs were employed to provide a subordinate explanation for the whole prescription. As holism is the dominant characteristic of CHMPs, we explored applications of CHMPs for IBD with the help of omics, gut microbiome, and network pharmacology, which are potential approaches to a dynamic figure of bioactions of CHMPs.

CONCLUSION

This review is the first to discuss the potential of CHMPs to manage IBD in a holistic context and will provide inspiring explanations for CHMP applications for further product transformation and application to other diseases.

Comparative pharmacokinetics of the main active components in normal and ulcerative colitis rats after oral administration of Zingiberis Rhizoma-Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma herb pair and its single herb extracts by LC-MS/MS

Zingiberis Rhizoma and Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma are usually used together for the treatment of ulcerative colitis in clinical practices. However, their compatibility mechanism remains unclear. In this study, a rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for simultaneous quantification of ginsenoside Re, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Rb1, and 6-gingerol in rat plasma after oral administration of Zingiberis Rhizoma-Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma herb pair and its single herb extracts. The calibration curves exhibited good linearity, with correlation coefficients of more than 0.993. The precision deviations of intra- and interday analysis were within 10.66%, and accuracy error ranged from -12.74 to 11.56%. The average recoveries of analytes were higher than 76.60% and the matrix effects were minimal. Thus, the validated method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of four ingredients in normal and ulcerative colitis rat plasma. The results indicated that the pharmacokinetic parameters of four analytes in normal and model groups showed significant differences. The larger exposure (the mean AUC0-t of ginsenoside Re, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Rb1, and 6-gingerol were increased by 50.93, 141.90, 3.68, and 37.25%, respectively) and slower elimination (the CLz/F of ginsenoside Re, ginsenoside Rg1, and 6-gingerol were decreased by 52.94, 83.64, and 32.18%, respectively) were observed in ulcerative colitis rats. Furthermore, compared with single herbs, the analytes in rat plasma after oral administration of combined extracts presented relatively high systemic exposure levels with AUC0-t > 2000 h·ng/mL and Cmax > 200 ng/mL. Collectively, the differences of pharmacokinetic characteristics revealed the synergistic effect of Zingiberis Rhizoma-Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma herb pair, which provided a valuable and reliable basis for its clinical application in the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

Lizhong decoction ameliorates ulcerative colitis in mice via modulating gut microbiota and its metabolites

Ulcerative colitis (UC), a kind of inflammatory bowel disease, is generally characterized by chronic, persistent, relapsing, and nonspecific ulceration of the bowel, which is widespread in the world. Although the pathogenesis of UC is multifactorial, growing evidence has demonstrated that gut microbiota and its metabolites are closely related to the development of UC. Lizhong decoction (LZD), a well-known classical Chinese herbal prescription, has been used to clinically treat UC for long time, but its mechanism is not clear. In this study, 16S rRNA gene sequencing combining with untargeted metabolomics profiling was used to investigate how LZD worked. Results indicated that LZD could shape the gut microbiota structure and modify metabolic profiles. The abundance of opportunistic pathogens such as Clostridium sensu stricto 1, Enterobacter, and Escherichia-Shigella correlated with intestinal inflammation markedly decreased, while the levels of beneficial bacteria including Blautia, Muribaculaceae_norank, Prevotellaceae UCG-001, and Ruminiclostridium 9 elevated in various degrees. Additionally, fecal metabolite profiles reflecting microbial activities showed that adenosine, lysoPC(18:0), glycocholic acid, and deoxycholic acid notably decreased, while cholic acid, α-linolenic acid, stearidonic acid, and L-tryptophan significantly increased after LZD treatment. Hence, based on the systematic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metabolomics of gut flora, the results provided a novel insight that microbiota and its metabolites might be potential targets for revealing the mechanism of LZD on amelioration of UC.Key Points • The potential mechanism of LZD on the amelioration of UC was firstly investigated.• LZD could significantly shape the structure of gut microbiota.• LZD could notably modulate the fecal metabolic profiling of UC mice. Graphical abstract.