Characteristic profiling of Aconiti Lateralis Radix for distinguishing it from compatible herbal pair using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS coupled with chemometrics

Exploring Potential Targets and Pathways of Toxicity Attenuation Through Serum Pharmacochemistry and Network Pharmacology in the Processing of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata

Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata (Fuzi, FZ) is a frequently utilized traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in clinical settings. However, its toxic and side effects, particularly cardiac injury, are apparent, necessitating processing before use. To investigate the mechanism of toxicity induced by absorbed components and the mitigating effect of processed FZ, we established a comprehensive method combining serum pharmacochemistry and a network pharmacology approach. In total, 31 chemical components were identified in the plasma, with a general decrease in response intensity observed for these components in processed FZ. Subsequently, four components were selected for network pharmacology analysis. This analysis revealed 150 drug action targets and identified 1162 cardiac toxicity targets. Through intersection analysis, 41 key targets related to cardiac toxicity were identified, along with 9 significant Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. The most critical targets identified were AKT1, MTOR, and PARP1. The key biological pathways implicated were adrenergic signaling in cardiomyocytes, proteoglycans in cancer, and the calcium signaling pathway. Significant differences were observed in histological staining and biochemical indicators in the cardiac tissue of rats treated with FZ, indicating that processing could indeed reduce its cardiotoxicity. Indeed, this article presents a valuable strategy for elucidating the toxification mechanism of toxic TCM.

Identification and quality evaluation of different processed products of Aconitum carmichaelii by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Aconitum carmichaelii is widely used to treat chronic and intractable diseases due to its remarkable curative effect, but it is also a highly toxic herb with severe cardiac and neurotoxicity. It has been combined with honey for thousands of years to reduce toxicity and enhance efficacy, but there has been no study on the chemical constituent changes in the honey-processing so far. In this study, the chemical constituents of A. carmichaelii before and after honey-processing were characterized by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry. The results showed that a total of 118 compounds were identified, of which six compounds disappeared and five compounds were newly produced after honey-processing, and the cleavage pathway of main components was elucidated. At the same time, 25 compounds were found to have significant effects on different products, among which four compounds with the biggest difference were selected for quantitative analysis by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. This study not only explained the chemical differences between the different products, but also helped to control the quality of the honey-processed products more effectively, and laid a foundation for further elucidating the mechanism of chemical constituent change during the honey-processing of A. carmichaelii.

MHAM-NPI: Predicting ncRNA-protein interactions based on multi-head attention mechanism

Non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is a functional RNA molecule that plays a key role in various fundamental biological processes, such as gene regulation. Therefore, studying the connection between ncRNA and proteins holds significant importance in exploring the function of ncRNA. Although many efficient and accurate methods have been developed by modern biological scientists, accurate predictions still pose a major challenge for various issues. In our approach, we utilize a multi-head attention mechanism to merge residual connections, allowing for the automatic learning of ncRNA and protein sequence features. Specifically, the proposed method projects node features into multiple spaces based on multi-head attention mechanism, thereby obtaining different feature interaction patterns in these spaces. By stacking interaction layers, higher-order interaction modes can be derived, while still preserving the initial feature information through the residual connection. This strategy effectively leverages the sequence information of ncRNA and protein, enabling the capture of hidden high-order features. The final experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, with AUC values of 97.4%, 98.5%, and 94.8% achieved on the NPInter v2.0, RPI807, and RPI488 datasets, respectively. These impressive results solidify our method as a powerful tool for exploring the connection between ncRNAs and proteins. We have uploaded the implementation code on GitHub: https://github.com/ZZCrazy00/MHAM-NPI.

The effect of compatibility of Aconiti Radix and honey on the pharmacokinetics of five Aconitum alkaloids in rat plasma

Aconiti Radix (Chuanwu [CW]), is widely used for the treatment of the chronic and intractable diseases due to its remarkable curative effect. CW has been combined with honey for thousands of years to reduce toxicity and enhance efficacy. This study first clarified compatibility mechanism of CW co-used with honey using a comparative pharmacokinetic idea. We developed and validated a simple, sensitive, specific, and accurate UHPLC-MS/MS method to simultaneously determine five Aconitum alkaloids in rat plasma after oral administration of CW decoction and CW-honey concentrated solution. Pharmacokinetic parameters were significantly different between the two groups (P<0.01 and P<0.05). Compared with CW group, C_max and AUC_0→t were decreased in CW-honey group for three diester-diterpenoid alkaloids (hypaconitine, mesaconitine and aconitine); T_max and T_1/2 were prolonged. However, C_max and AUC_0→t were increased in CW-honey group for two monoester-diterpenoid alkaloids (benzoylaconine and benzoylmesaconine); T_max was shortened; T_1/2 was prolonged. These findings suggest that honey affected the pharmacokinetic behaviors of five Aconitum alkaloids. We speculate that the detoxification and synergism of honey might result from reducing the toxicity of diester-diterpenoid alkaloids and promoting the biological activity of monoester-diterpenoid alkaloids in vivo. This study provides a theoretical basis for the clinical use of CW combined with honey.

Metabolic Behaviors of Aconitum Alkaloids in Different Concentrations of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata and Effects of Aconitine in Healthy Human and Long QT Syndrome Cardiomyocytes

Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata (Fu Zi) is the processed lateral root of Aconitum carmichaelii Debx, which is widely used in emergency clinics. Poisoning incidents and adverse reactions occur with the improper intake of Fu Zi. Metabolic characteristics of aconitum alkaloids of Fu Zi may vary, and the effects of Fu Zi in healthy and Long QT syndrome (LQTS) patients is unknown. In this experiment, 24 Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: 2.0, 1.0, and 0.5 g/kg dose groups, and blood samples were collected after the oral administration of Fu Zi extract. We used an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry system to detect the concentrations of six aconitum alkaloids. Cell toxicity, calcium imaging, and patch-clamp recordings of human induced pluripotent stem cells-cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) of aconitine in healthy and LQTS were observed. We found that the AUC(0–48h), Cmax, and t1/2 of the six compounds increased with the multiplicative dosages; those in the high group were significantly higher than those in the low group. Aconitine concentration-dependently decreased the amplitude, which has no significant effect on the cell index of normal hiPSC-CMs. Aconitine at 5.0 μM decreased the cell index between 5–30 min for LQTS hiPSC-CMs. Meanwhile, aconitine significantly increased the frequency of calcium transients in LQTS at 5 μM. Aconitine significantly shortened the action potential duration of human cardiomyocytes in both normal and LQTS groups. These results show metabolic behaviors of aconitum alkaloids in different concentrations of Fu Zi and effects of aconitine in healthy and LQTS patients.