Separation and simultaneous determination of seven bioactive components in Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. F. and Tripterygium preparations by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography

Quantification of promoting efficiency and reducing toxicity of Traditional Chinese Medicine: A case study of the combination of Tripterygium wilfordii hook. f. and Lysimachia christinae hance in the treatment of lung cancer

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) usually acts in the form of compound prescriptions in the treatment of complex diseases. The herbs contained in each prescription have the dual nature of efficiency and toxicity due to their complex chemical component, and the principle of prescription is usually to increase efficiency and reduce toxicity. At present, the studies on prescriptions have mainly focused on the consideration of the material basis and possible mechanism of the action mode, but the quantitative research on the compatibility rule of increasing efficiency and reducing toxicity is still the tip of the iceberg. With the extensive application of computational pharmacology technology in the research of TCM prescriptions, it is possible to quantify the mechanism of synergism and toxicity reduction of the TCM formula. Currently, there are some classic drug pairs commonly used to treat complex diseases, such as Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. with Lysimachia christinae Hance for lung cancer, Aconitum carmichaelii Debeaux with Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. in the treatment of coronary heart disease, but there is a lack of systematic quantitative analysis model and strategy to quantitatively study the compatibility rule and potential mechanism of synergism and toxicity reduction. To address this issue, we designed an integrated model which integrates matrix decomposition and shortest path propagation, taking into account both the crosstalk of the effective network and the propagation characteristics. With the integrated model strategy, we can quantitatively detect the possible mechanisms of synergism and attenuation of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. and Lysimachia christinae Hance in the treatment of lung cancer. The results showed the compatibility of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. and Lysimachia christinae Hance could increase the efficacy and decrease the toxicity of lung cancer treatment through MAPK pathway and PD-1 checkpoint pathway in lung cancer.

Simultaneous separation and determination of four active ingredients in Picria fel-terrae Lour. and its preparations by micellar electrokinetic chromatography

INTRODUCTION

Picfeltarraenins IA, IB and IV and acteoside are the four bioactive ingredients of Picria fel-terrae Lour. Their pharmacological effects include central inhibitory, cardiovascular, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic, analgesic, anti-bacterial, antioxidative and anti-tumor effects.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to develop an efficient micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) method modified with mixed organic solvents for the simultaneous separation and determination of the four components in Picriae Herba and its formulations.

METHODS

Method optimization was carried out by investigating influences of significant factors on the separation, and this method was successfully applied for the determination of the four components in Picriae Herba and its formulations.

RESULTS

The optimal running buffer was composed of 20 mM sodium tetraborate, 40 mM sodium cholate, 10% (v/v) methanol and 10% (v/v) isopropanol (pH 9.76). The separation voltage was 18 kV, the temperature was 25°C and the detection wavelength was 266 nm. Under the optimal separation conditions, the baseline separation of four components was achieved in less than 14 min. The correlation coefficients of the calibration curves were 0.9984-0.9995 for the analytes. The intraday and interday precision ranged from 1.5% to 2.5% and from 1.4% to 5.0%, respectively. Recoveries of analytes varied from 96.6% to 104.1%.

CONCLUSION

The method was proved suitable for the determination of four components in Picriae Herba and its formulations. Good performance was obtained under optimal conditions, and the method provides an effective tool for the quality control of Picriae Herba and its formulations.

Simultaneous separation and determination of hirsutine and hirsuteine by cyclodextrin-modified micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography

INTRODUCTION

Hirsutine and hirsuteine are the main pharmacological activity ingredients of Uncaria rhynchophylla (UR), playing an important role in treating mental and cardiovascular diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, hypertension, Parkinson's disease, potential anti-cancer activities and so on.

OBJECTIVE

To develop a cyclodextrin-modified micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (CD-MEKC) method for the simultaneous separation and determination of hirsutine and hirsuteine from UR and its formulations.

METHODOLOGY

The optimal method was developed by investigating influences of significant factors on the separation, and this method was successfully applied for the determination of hirsutine and hirsuteine in UR and its formulations.

RESULTS

The optimal background electrolyte (BGE) consisted of 40 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate (pH 7.0), 150 mM 2,6-dimethyl-β-cyclodextrin (DM-β-CD), 3 mM mono-(6-ethylenediamine-6-deoxy)-β-cyclodextrin (ED-β-CD), and 30 mM sodium cholate (SC). Under these conditions, hirsutine and hirsuteine were successfully separated within 13 min at the separation voltage of 15 kV, temperature of 25°C and the detection wavelength of 224 nm. For the analytes, linear calibration curves were performed within the range 5.0-160.0 μg/mL. The limit of detection (LOD, S/N = 3) and the limit of quantitation (LOQ, S/N = 10) were 0.41, 1.42 μg/mL for hirsutine and 0.60, 2.17 μg/mL for hirsuteine, respectively. The recoveries of three samples were from 97.9% to 102.3%.

CONCLUSION

The method was successfully applied to the determination of hirsutine and hirsuteine in UR and its formulations. Meanwhile, it provides an effective reference of the quality control of UR and its formulations.

Triptolide inhibits tonsillar IgA production by upregulating FDC-SP in IgA nephropathy

IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is primarily resulted of qualitative abnormality of IgA. The occurrence of IgAN is associated with affected tonsils which enhances the IgA production via IgA class switching and immuno-activation. Follicular dendritic cell-secreted protein (FDC-SP) was found to be a negative effect for IgA production in tonsil. The previous studies suggested that Triptolide might reduce IgA production by its immunosuppression role. Given this background, this study investigated the mechanisms underlying the role of Triptolide and FDC-SP in the generation of IgA and IgA class switching in tonsil of IgAN patients. Immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction revealed that the expression of FDC-SP was increased in the tonsils of IgAN patients with Triptolide treatment compared with those without treatment. Meanwhile, the expression of FDC-SP was negatively correlated with IgA inducing cytokines in the tonsils of IgAN patients treated with Triptolide, due to the significant decreased IgA-bearing cells. The expression of FDC-SP in tonsillar tissue was confirmed by double immunofluorescence. Importantly, Triptolide promoted FDC-SP secretion, and correlated negatively with decreased IgA production in isolated FDC-associated clusters, which had been isolated from patients without TW treatment previously. Our study demonstrated that Triptolide might have an impact on FDC-SP production and downregulation of IgA synthesis in the tonsils of IgAN patients, which could be a promising strategy for therapeutic intervention in IgAN patients.