Salt-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction for enhancing the concentration of matrine alkaloids in traditional Chinese medicine and its preparations

Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis of a ratio-optimized drug pair of Sophora flavescens Aiton and Coptis chinensis Franch and study on the mechanism of anti-colorectal cancer effect of two alkaloids thereof

The drug pair consisting of Sophora flavescens Aiton (Sophorae flavescentis radix, Kushen) and Coptis chinensis Franch. (Coptidis rhizoma, Huanglian), as described in Prescriptions for Universal Relief (Pujifang), is widely used to treat laxation. Matrine and berberine are the major active components of Kushen and Huanglian, respectively. These agents have shown remarkable anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects. A mouse model of colorectal cancer was used to determine the most effective combination of Kushen and Huanglian against anti-colorectal cancer. The results showed that the combination of Kushen and Huanglian at a 1:1 ratio exerted the best anti-colorectal cancer effect versus other ratios. Moreover, the anti-colorectal cancer effect and potential mechanism underlying the effects of matrine and berberine were evaluated by the analysis of combination treatment or monotherapy. In addition, the chemical constituents of Kushen and Huanglian were identified and quantified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). A total of 67 chemical components were identified from the Kushen-Huanglian drug pair (water extraction), and the levels of matrine and berberine were 129 and 232 µg/g, respectively. Matrine and berberine reduced the growth of colorectal cancer and relieved the pathological conditions in mice. In addition, the combination of matrine and berberine displayed better anti-colorectal cancer efficacy than monotherapy. Moreover, matrine and berberine reduced the relative abundance of Bacteroidota and Campilobacterota at phylum level and that of Helicobacter, Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, Candidatus_Arthromitus, norank_f_Lachnospiraceae, Rikenella, Odoribacter, Streptococcus, norank_f_Ruminococcaceae, and Anaerotruncus at the genus level. Western blotting results demonstrated that treatment with matrine and berberine decreased the protein expressions of c-MYC and RAS, whereas it increased that of sirtuin 3 (Sirt3). The findings indicated that the combination of matrine and berberine was more effective in inhibiting colorectal cancer than monotherapy. This beneficial effect might depend on the improvement of intestinal microbiota structure and regulation of the RAS/MEK/ERK-c-MYC-Sirt3 signaling axis.

The Potential of Microextraction Techniques for the Analysis of Bioactive Compounds in Food

For a long time, the importance of sample preparation and extraction in the analytical performance of the most diverse methodologies have been neglected. Cumbersome techniques, involving high sample and solvent volumes have been gradually miniaturized from solid-phase and liquid-liquid extractions formats and microextractions approaches are becoming the standard in different fields of research. In this context, this review is devoted to the analysis of bioactive compounds in foods using different microextraction approaches reported in the literature since 2015. But microextraction also represents an opportunity to mitigate the environmental impact of organic solvents usage, as well as lab equipment. For this reason, in the recent literature, phenolics and alkaloids extraction from fruits, medicinal herbs, juices, and coffee using different miniaturized formats of solid-phase extraction and liquid-liquid microextraction are the most popular applications. However, more ambitious analytical limits are continuously being reported and emergent sorbents based on carbon nanotubes and magnetic nanoparticles will certainly contribute to this trend. Additionally, ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents constitute already the most recent forefront of innovation, substituting organic solvents and further improving the current microextraction approaches.

Effect of Sophocarpine on the Pharmacokinetics of Umbralisib in Rat Plasma Using a Novel UPLC-MS/MS Method

Umbralisib is a dual inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase delta (PI3Kδ) and casein kinase 1 epsilon (CK1ε) for treating marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) and follicular lymphoma (FL). This study aimed to develop a fast and stable ultra performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for quantitative analysis of umbralisib in rat plasma and its application for evaluating the effect of sophocarpine on the pharmacokinetics of umbralisib. A direct protein preparation with acetonitrile was used to deal with rat plasma. Umbralisib and duvelisib (internal standard, IS) were isolated on a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column with mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid in water. The linear range was from 0.5 to 1,000 ng/ml. Both of the precision (RSD%) and accuracy (RE%) were less than 15% in a permissible range. The mean recovery and matrix effect of umbralisib were 86.3–96.2% and 97.8–112.0%, respectively. When umbralisib was combined with sophocarpine, AUC0→∞ of umbralisib was significantly reduced to 2462.799 ± 535.736 ng/ml•h from 5416.665 ± 1,451.846 ng/ml•h, and Cmax also was markedly diminished. Moreover, CLz/F was increased more than two times. This developed, optimized and technical UPLC-MS/MS method was extremely suitable for detecting the concentrations of umbralisib in rat plasma after an oral administration, and sophocarpine significantly changed the pharmacokinetics of umbralisib in rats. This obvious pharmacokinetic changes indicates that there seems to exist herb-drug interaction between sophocarpine and umbralisib.

Three-phase hollow fiber liquid-phase microextraction combined with HPLC for determination of three trace acidic plant growth regulators in Anoectochilus roxburghii (Wall.) Lindl

The analysis of plant growth regulators presents a challenge due to their trace quantities and complex matrices. A novel, simple, and effective analytical method for the determination of three trace acidic plant growth regulators in Anoectochilus roxburghii (Wall.) Lindl was developed to address this issue. Three-phase hollow fiber liquid-phase microextraction combined with high-performance liquid chromatography was applied for the enrichment, purification, and determination of three acidic plant growth regulators, namely, indole-3-acetic-acid, indole-3-butyric-acid, and (+)-abscisic acid. The factors affecting extraction performance, including extractant species, pH of donor and acceptor phases, salt addition dosage, extraction time, temperature, and stirring rate, were investigated and optimized. Under optimum conditions, the proposed method provided good linearity (R² , 0.9994-0.9999), low limit of detection (0.038-0.12 ng/mL), and acceptable relative recoveries (56.7-117.6%). The enrichment factors were between 153 and 328. The developed method was successfully applied to the enrichment and determination of plant growth regulators in Anoectochilus roxburghii (Wall.) Lindl and exhibited increased purification capacity, higher sensitivity, and decreased organic solvent consumption compared with conventional sample preparation methods. This method may provide a testing platform for the monitoring of plant growth regulator residues, ensuring the safe and effective use of traditional Chinese medicine.

Rapid and sensitive analytical procedure for biomonitoring of organophosphate pesticide metabolites in human urine samples using a vortex-assisted salt-induced liquid-liquid microextraction technique coupled with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

RATIONALE

Organophosphate pesticides (OPPs) are the most commonly used insecticides around the world in various agricultural and domestic practices, and humans are frequently exposed to these hazardous insecticides that can lead to several chronic health effects. Therefore, a fast and sensitive analytical method is required for biomonitoring the markers of OPPs in humans for exposure estimation. In this study, a fast and sensitive analytical procedure was developed for the determination of the metabolites of OPPs in human urine samples.

METHODS

Metabolites of OPPs were extracted from 2 mL of urine sample using a novel vortex-assisted salt-induced liquid-liquid microextraction (VA-SI-LLME) technique, and the preconcentrated metabolites were analyzed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC/MS/MS). Various factors affecting the efficiency of VA-SI-LLME were thoroughly investigated.

RESULTS

The metabolites of OPPs exhibited very good linearity over the concentration range between 0.05 and 50 ng mL^-1 with coefficient (r² ) values ranging between 0.9986 and 0.9999. The method showed excellent sensitivity with detection limits ranging from 0.01 to 0.03 ng mL^-1 and quantification limits from 0.03 to 0.05 ng mL^-1 . The developed method was applied to the analysis of real samples and the recoveries ranged between 85.0 and 114.1% with related standard deviations <5%.

CONCLUSIONS

The results showed the VA-SI-LLME/UHPLC/MS/MS method to be a simple, rapid, sensitive, and selective analytical procedure for the biomonitoring of the metabolites of OPPs in humans. This efficient and cost-effective analytical method could be a potential alternative method for the biomonitoring of the metabolites of pesticides in humans.

Quantification and Simplified Detoxification Investigation on Fuzi, Root ofAconitum carmichaelii

Fuzi (lateral root of Aconitum carmichaelii) has been used for millennia in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda to treat cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Fuzi must be processed before use to decrease the concentration of its toxic alkaloids. Detoxification during processing occurs through the transformation of diester-diterpenoid alkaloids (DDAs) to monoester-diterpenoid alkaloids (MDAs). However, traditional detoxification methods are time-consuming and expensive on large-scale production. To develop efficient detoxification protocols to reduce unnecessary processing procedure and keep the maximum functional contents from raw Fuzi, we replicated the traditional procedure and quantified the DDAs and MDAs by UPLC-MS/MS and UPLC-PDA during different steps and conditions of processing. With due consideration of obtained data, we concluded that soaking in Danba solution and the washing steps were inefficient traditional processing methods. The detoxification effect of steaming (56.3 ± 0.27 μg/g DDAs, lowest after steaming) was weaker and slower than boiling (5.8 ± 0.33 μg/g DDAs, lowest after boiling). Moreover, roasting at 105℃ showed better effect in lowering the DDAs (5.8 ± 0.33 μg/g DDAs) and increasing the MDAs (729.1 ± 1.22 μg/g MDAs, highest) than roasting at 60℃ (17.3 ± 0.65 μg/g DDAs; 504.0 ± 0.99 μg/g MDAs). With these highly reliable analytic data, we established an efficient and referenceable detoxification protocol for Fuzi TCM products, in which DDAs and MDAs should legitimately follow the safe and specific ranges stipulated in pharmacopeias.