Bioassay based screening for the antiplatelet aggregation quality markers of Polygonum multiflorum with UPLC and chemometrics

Exploring the ethnopharmacological significance of Cynara scolymus bracts: Integrating metabolomics, in-Vitro cytotoxic studies and network pharmacology for liver and breast anticancer activity assessment

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Liver and breast cancers are the most dominant cancer types with high occurrence rates. Artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) has been reputed for its traditional use in alleviating many liver and gallbladder ailments beside its anticancer activity against various types of cancer cells.

AIM OF THE STUDY

To demonstrate detailed chemical matrices of the different plant parts and evaluate their cytotoxic activities aiming to unveil the relationship between these activities and the intrinsic metabolites using metabolomic studies, in-vitro experiments and network pharmacology.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Chemical profiling of extracts from the different plant parts (stems, leaves, bracts and receptacles) was performed using HPLC/QqQ/MS followed by unsupervised chemometric studies. In-vitro cytotoxic potentials of the extracts were evaluated on breast and liver cancer cell line then an OPLS study using linear regression was conducted. Consequently, a network pharmacology analysis on the most bioactive plant organ was applied.

RESULTS

Unsupervised chemometric analysis revealed that kaempferol-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside-7-O-β-D-galacturonopyranoside, chrysoeriol-7-rutinoside and 1-caffeoylquinic acid were responsible for the segregation of the bract (CSB) segregated from the rest of the plant organs. Interestingly, CSB extract possessed the highest potential in-vitro cytotoxic activity against both liver and breast cancer cells (IC50 = 1.65 and 1.77 μg/mL). As expected, the aforementioned biomarkers were observed to be the discriminatory cytotoxic metabolites in the constructed supervised chemometric model. Network pharmacology analysis on CSB revealed 27 liver cancer-related metabolites of which, 1-caffeoylquinic acid was the most enriched one contributing to 13% of the total interactions. Furthermore, 38 target genes were involved, the most enriched of which were Aldo-keto reductase family 1 member B1 (AKR1B10) and interleukin-2 (IL-2). KEGG pathway analysis unveiled 23 significantly related pathways including metabolic pathways that possessed the lowest p-value (1.6E-5).

CONCLUSION

The findings demonstrated that CSB is a significant source of cytotoxic metabolites against breast cancer and liver cancer cell lines, hence, drawing attention to the pharmaceutical and medicinal value of this negligible plant organ and paving the route for insightful research into its exact pharmacological cytotoxic mechanisms.

An integrated and rapid evaluation of Curcumae Radix from different botanical origins based on chemical components, antiplatelet aggregation effect and Fourier transform near-infrared spectroscopy

Curcumae Radix (CR) is a widely used traditional Chinese medicine with significant pharmaceutical importance, including enhancing blood circulation and addressing blood stasis. This study aims to establish an integrated and rapid quality assessment method for CR from various botanical origins, based on chemical components, antiplatelet aggregation effects, and Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy combined with multivariate algorithms. Firstly, ultra-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array (UPLC-PDA) combined with chemometric analyses was used to examine variations in the chemical profiles of CR. Secondly, the activation effect on blood circulation of CR was assessed using an in vitro antiplatelet aggregation assay. The studies revealed significant variations in chemical profiles and antiplatelet aggregation effects among CR samples from different botanical origins, with constituents such as germacrone, β-elemene, bisdemethoxycurcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and curcumin showing a positive correlation with antiplatelet aggregation biopotency. Thirdly, FT-NIR spectroscopy was integrated with various machine learning algorithms, including Artificial Neural Network (ANN), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Logistic Regression (LR), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Subspace K-Nearest Neighbors (Subspace KNN), to classify CR samples from four distinct sources. The result showed that FT-NIR combined with KNN and SVM classification algorithms after SNV and MSC preprocessing successfully distinguished CR samples from four plant sources with an accuracy of 100%. Finally, Quantitative models for active constituents and antiplatelet aggregation bioactivity were developed by optimizing the partial least squares (PLS) model with interval combination optimization (ICO) and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) techniques. The CARS-PLS model achieved the best predictive performance across all five components. The coefficient of determination (R2p) and root mean square error (RMSEP) in the independent test sets were 0.9708 and 0.2098, 0.8744 and 0.2065, 0.9511 and 0.0034, 0.9803 and 0.0066, 0.9567 and 0.0172 for germacrone, β-elemene, bisdemethoxycurcumin, demethoxycurcumin and curcumin, respectively. The ICO-PLS model demonstrated superior predictive capabilities for antiplatelet aggregation biotency, achieving an R2p of 0.9010, and an RMSEP of 0.5370. This study provides a valuable reference for the quality evaluation of CR in a more rapid and comprehensive manner.

Chemometric-based drug discovery approaches from natural origins using hyphenated chromatographic techniques

INTRODUCTION

Isolation and characterization of bioactive components from complex matrices of marine or terrestrial biological origins are the most challenging issues for natural product chemists. Biochemometric is a new potential scope in natural product analytical science, and it is a methodology to find the compound's correlation to their bioactivity with the help of hyphenated chromatographic techniques and chemometric tools.

OBJECTIVES

The present review aims to evaluate the application of chemometric tools coupled to chromatographic techniques for drug discovery from natural resources.

METHODS

The searching keywords "biochemometric," "chemometric," "chromatography," "natural products bioassay," and "bioassay" were selected to search the published articles between 2010-2023 using different search engines including "Pubmed", "Web of Science," "ScienceDirect," and "Google scholar."

RESULTS

An initial stage in natural product analysis is applying the chromatographic hyphenated techniques in conjunction with biochemometric approaches. Among the applied chromatographic techniques, liquid chromatography (LC) techniques, have taken up more than half (53%) and also, mass spectroscopy (MS)-based chromatographic techniques such as LC-MS are the most widely used techniques applied in combination with chemometric methods for natural products bioassay. Considering the complexity of dataset achieved from chromatographic hyphenated techniques, chemometric tools have been increasingly employed for phytochemical studies in the context of determining botanicals geographical origin, quality control, and detection of bioactive compounds.

CONCLUSION

Biochemometric application is expected to be further improved with advancing in data acquisition methods, new efficient preprocessing, model validation and variable selection methods which would guarantee that the applied model to have good prediction ability in compound relation to its bioactivity.

Multimodal integrated strategy for the discovery and identification of antiplatelet aggregation Q-markers in Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis

To enhance the quality evaluation and control of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and ensure the safety and efficacy of clinical medication, it is imperative to establish a comprehensive quality assessment method aligned with TCM efficacy. This study uses a representative Chinese medicine with multi-origin and multi-efficacy, Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis (PY), as an illustrative example. Surprisingly, despite the high fingerprint similarity among the 12 batches of PY samples collected from various regions in Yunnan, a notable variation in the composition and content of components was observed. The chromatographic analysis identified seven common peaks, namely, polyphyllin I, polyphyllin II, polyphyllin V, polyphyllin VI, polyphyllin VII, polyphyllin H, and polyphyllin D. In the bioactivity evaluation, an in vitro antiplatelet aggregation model induced by adenosine diphosphate was established, showcasing excellent stability. The maximum antiplatelet aggregation inhibition rate for all PY samples consistently remained stable at 73.1%-99.1%. However, the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50 ) values exhibited a range from 1.615 to 18.200 mg/mL. This approach not only meets high-throughput screening requirements but also demonstrates remarkable discrimination. The results of chemical and bioactivity evaluations were analyzed using hierarchical cluster analysis and canonical correlation analysis. Polyphyllin I, polyphyllin II, polyphyllin VII, polyphyllin H, and polyphyllin D were identified as the Q-markers for antiplatelet aggregation in PY samples. Validation of the bioactivity for these monomer components aligned with the previously mentioned findings. Notably, this study established a spectrum-effect model for PY samples, enhancing the scientific robustness of the quality evaluation method. Furthermore, these findings offer valuable research insights for improving the quality assessment of other TCMs.

Quality Consistency Evaluation of Traditional Chinese Medicines: Current Status and Future Perspectives

Quality consistency evaluation of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) is a crucial factor that determines the safe and effective application in clinical settings. However, TCMs exhibit diverse, heterogeneous, complex, and flexible chemical compositions, as well as variability in preparation processes. These characteristics pose greater challenges in researching the consistency of TCMs compared to chemically synthesized and biological drugs. Therefore, it is paramount to develop effective strategies for evaluating the quality consistency of TCMs. From the starting point of quality properties, this review explores the strategy used to evaluate quality consistency in terms of chemistry-based strategy (chemical consistency) and the biology-based strategy (bioequivalence). Among them, the chemistry-based strategy is the mainstream, and biology-based strategy complements the chemistry-based strategy each other. Furthermore, the emerging chemistry-biology strategies (overall evaluation) is discussed, including individually combining strategy and integration strategy. Finally, this review provides insights into the challenges and future perspectives in this field. By highlighting current status and trends in TCMs quality consistency, this review aims to contribute to establishment of generally applicable chemistry-biology integrated evaluation strategy for TCMs. This will facilitate the advancement toward a higher stage of overall quality evaluation.

Improving Chuanxiong Rhizoma quality standards using an effect-constituent index based bioassay

Chuanxiong Rhizoma is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that is used to promote blood circulation. We set out to improve Chuanxiong Rhizoma quality standards using a bioassay-based Effect-constituent Index (ECI). We performed high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis to determine the chemical constituents of 10 Chuanxiong Rhizoma samples from different locations. We then constructed a direct bioassay method to investigate each sample's antiplatelet aggregation effects. To screen for active ingredients that promote antiplatelet aggregation, we carried out Pearson correlation analyses between biopotency and compounds identified in the HPLC data. We developed an ECI of platelet aggregation inhibition using a multi-indicator synthetic evaluation method based on the integration of biopotency and active constituents. To further assess the biopotency-based Chuanxiong Rhizoma quality evaluation result accuracy, we compared the ECI with the chemical indicator' method. Eight common chemical fingerprints peaks indicated notable content variation among samples. Biological evaluation showed that all 10 samples could inhibit platelet aggregation, although they had significantly different biological potencies. Using spectrum-effect relationships, we determined that Ligustilide was the significant active constituent responsible for antiplatelet aggregation. Using correlation analysis, we found that ECI correlated with the Chuanxiong Rhizoma extract's platelet aggregation inhibitory effect. Additionally, ECI proved to be a good indicator of Chuanxiong Rhizoma quality, whereas chemical indicators failed to distinguish and predict the biopotency-based quality grade. This work indicates that ECI is a useful tool for associating sample quality with chemical markers linked to TCM clinical effects. ECI also provides a paradigm for improving the quality control of other TCMs that invigorate blood circulation.

Qualitative and quantitative method for quality control of Itea ilicifolia based on antioxidant Q-markers

Itea ilicifolia Oliv is a folk medicine with antioxidant potential. In this study, the fingerprints of 14 batches of I. ilicifolia were established by HPLC with 17 common peaks. The similarities evaluated by Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of Chinese Materia (version 2012) were >0.89. Ten compounds were identified with definite structures by comparing the retention time and characteristic UV spectral pattern with those of reference substances. The antioxidant capacities of 14 batches of I. ilicifolia were evaluated based on O₂ ^·- , DPPH and ABTS^·+ radical scavenging assays in combination with ferric reducing antioxidant power assay. Via multivariate statistical analyses of gray relation analysis, bivariate correlation analysis and partial least squares regression analysis, a study on the spectrum-effect relationship was then performed to screen eight peaks as the antioxidant Q-markers of I. ilicifolia. The contents of representative antioxidant Q-markers (isoorientin, orientin, vitexin, isovitexin and iteafuranal A) in samples were accurately determined to be 0.054-0.118%, 0.034-0.080%, 0.018-0.055%, 0.031-0.091% and 0.033-0.140%, respectively. The qualitative and quantitative analytical method based on Q-markers helps to control the antioxidant quality of I. ilicifolia, which will lay the foundation to promote the rational utilization of I. ilicifolia in curing diseases related to oxidative stress.

Comprehensive quality consistency evaluation strategy and analysis of compound danshen tablet

The compositions of traditional Chinese medicines are extremely complex,as a result, exploring consistent quality is demanded and challenging. Quality consistency of products obtained from the same manufacturer has received little attention. The strategy of quality consistency evaluation (QCE) has been proposed as a novel method for quality control of Traditional Chinese Medicine Patent Prescription (TCMPP). This study aimed to establish a comprehensive QCE strategy for Compound Danshen Tablet (CDT). High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detector and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry were separately applied to determinate the content of seven and two index components, which representing the quality actuality of different raw medicines. The dissolution test was designed to obtain the dissolution ratios of CDT samples. QCE can provide the intra-batch content consistency difference (P_A), inter-batch content consistency difference (P_B), and dissolution ratio consistency difference (P_R) values. The consistency of CDT samples from 15 different manufacturers (75 batches) was evaluated by principal component analysis (PCA), which showed that the total content (nine index components) of the 75 batches of samples obtained from 15 manufacturers ranged from 22.11 to 38.45 mg·tablet^-1. The dissolution ratios ranged from 74.8% to 116.4%. The P_A values of 15 manufacturers ranged from 2.4% to 12.2%, and the P_B (11.1-45.1%) values were higher than the P_A values. The P_R values reflecting the various dissolution ratios in vitro ranged from 8.1% to 57.5%. The three consistency factors were ranked by PCA, and products of the 15 manufacturers were classified into three categories. The P_A, P_B, and P_R values provided a comprehensive and effective approach for monitoring the quality consistency of CDT and can serve as an example of QCE for other TCMPP.

Multimodal integrated strategy for the discovery and identification of quality markers in traditional Chinese medicine

With the modernization and internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the requirement for quality control has increased. The quality marker (Q-marker) is an important standard in this field and has been implemented with remarkable success in recent years. However, the establishment of Q-markers remains fragmented and the process lacks systematicity, resulting in inconsistent quality control and insufficient correlation with clinical efficacy and safety of TCM. This review introduces four multimodal integrated approaches that contribute to the discovery of more comprehensive and accurate Q-markers, thus aiding in the establishment of new quality control patterns based on the characteristics and principles of TCM. These include the whole-process quality control strategy, chemical-activity-based screening method, efficacy, safety, and consistent combination strategy, and TCM theory-guided approach. Furthermore, methodologies and representative examples of these strategies are described, and important future directions and questions in this field are also proposed.

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Four multimodal integrated strategies were introduced to establish Q-markers.

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Quality control of TCM should focus on the entire process chain.

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The identification of Q-markers needs to be guided by TCM theory.

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Ensuring efficacy, safety, and consistency is an essential goal of Q-markers.

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Multidisciplinary techniques are the driving force for improving Q-markers.

Recent advance in the discovery of tyrosinase inhibitors from natural sources via separation methods

Tyrosinase (TYR) inhibitors are in great demand in the food, cosmetic and medical industrials due to their important roles. Therefore, the discovery of high-quality TYR inhibitors is always pursued. Natural products as one of the most important sources of bioactive compounds discovery have been increasingly used for TYR inhibitors screening. However, due to their complex compositions, it is still a great challenge to rapid screening and identification of biologically active components from them. In recent years, with the help of separation technologies and the affinity and intrinsic activity of target enzymes, two advanced approaches including affinity screening and inhibition profiling showed great promises for a successful screening of bioactive compounds from natural sources. This review summarises the recent progress of separation-based methods for TYR inhibitors screening, with an emphasis on the principle, application, advantage, and drawback of each method along with perspectives in the future development of these screening techniques and screened hit compounds.

Trends and Application of Chemometric Pattern Recognition Techniques in Medicinal Plants Analysis

Medicinal plants have been used and studied for ages, from very old registers to modern ethnopharmacology, which encompasses analytical chemistry, foods, and pharmacy. Based on international norms and governmental organizations of health, phytomedicine-for example, herbal drugs-needs to guarantee the quality control of products and identify contaminants, biomarkers, and chemical profiles, among other issues. In this sense, is necessary to develop advanced analytical methods that show interesting possibilities and obtain a great amount of data. In order to treat the data, a set of mathematical and statistical procedures named chemometrics is necessary. In terms of herbal drugs, chemometric tools may be used to identify the following in plants: parts, development stages, processing, geographic origin, authentication, and chemical markers. This review describes applications of chemometric pattern recognition tools to analyze herbal drugs in different conditions associated with analytical methods in the last six years (2015-2020).

Spectrum-effect relationship between UPLC fingerprints and anti-lung cancer effect of Panax ginseng

OBJECTIVES

Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate among the various types of cancer. Panax ginseng (C. A. Mey). is a popular anti-cancer herbal supplement. The quality control of ginseng is crucial to ensure its clinical efficacy. This study aimed to establish new quality control methods for ginseng and to identify its main active components responsible for lung cancer treatment.

METHODS

Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) was used to establish fingerprints of 18 batches of ginseng. CCK-8 test was performed to evaluate the inhibitory activity of ginseng on Lewis lung cancer (LLC) cells. The spectrum-effect relationship analysis of ginseng was assessed by canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and bioactivity validation.

KEY FINDINGS

Six common peaks were identified and the variation coefficients were determined. The 18 batches of ginseng inhibited the proliferation of LLC cells to different degrees, showing different half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀ ) values. Spectrum-effect relationship analysis showed that ginsenoside Ro is the main anti-proliferative constituent of LLC cell.

CONCLUSIONS

Spectrum-effect relationship is suitable for quality control of ginseng used for lung cancer. It is also effective in discovering the active ingredients related to the clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine.

A Bioassay-Based Approach for the Batch-To-Batch Consistency Evaluation of Xuesaitong Injection on a Zebrafish Thrombosis Model

Quality control of Chinese medicine (CM) is mainly based on chemical testing, which sometimes shows weak correlation to pharmacological effects. Thus, there is a great demand to establish bioactivity-based assays to ensure the quality of CM. The aim of the present study was to establish a bioassay-based approach to evaluate the biological activity of Xuesaitong injection (XST) based on an in vivo zebrafish model. Zebrafish larvae with arachidonic acid (AA)-induced thrombus were applied to evaluate anti-thrombosis effects of XST and explore the potential mechanism of XST. Analysis of major components in normal and abnormal XST samples was performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results indicate that XST could significantly restore heart red blood cells (RBCs) intensity of thrombotic zebrafish in a dose-dependent manner, whilst decreasing RBCs accumulation in the caudal vein. The results were confirmed using a green fluorescence protein (GFP)-labeled zebrafish thrombosis model. Moreover, we could show that XST downregulates the expression of the fibrinogen alpha chain (fga) gene to inhibit the coagulation cascade during the process of thrombosis in zebrafish. Notoginsenoside R_1, ginsenoside Rg₁, ginsenoside Rb₁ and ginsenoside Rd, which were considered to be the major components of XST, also showed moderate anti-thrombosis efficacy. Further results showed that the zebrafish thrombosis model could efficiently distinguish five abnormal batches of XST from 24 normal batches. Furthermore, the inhibition rates of different batches were correlated with the content level of major components. Our results suggested that the proposed zebrafish thrombosis model could be successfully used to evaluate the batch-to-batch consistency of XST, which provided an alternative way for the quality control of CM.

Untargeted Metabolomics Analysis Using FTIR and UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS of Two Curculigo Species and Evaluation of their Antioxidant and α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activities

Curculigo orchioides and C. latifolia have been used as traditional medicines such as antidiabetic and anticancer. This study measured the total phenolics and flavonoid contents as well as analyzed the functional groups and chemical compounds using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra and UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-HRMS profiling for the discrimination of plant parts, geographical origin, and compounds that presumably have a significant contribution as antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitors on both plants. The total phenolics and flavonoids contents in Curculigo species varied from 142.09 to 452.47 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE/g) and from 0.82 to 5.44 mg quercetin equivalent (QE/g), respectively. The lowest IC₅₀ for antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities is presented by C. latifolia from a higher altitude region. Principal component analysis (PCA) from FTIR and UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-HRMS data could discriminate the plant parts and geographical origin. Partial least squares (PLS) analysis has identified several functional groups, such as O–H, C–H, C=O, C–C, C–O, and chemical compounds, unknown-185 and unknown-85, that are most likely to contribute to the antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities.

A strategy for qualitative and quantitative profiling of Angelicae Pubescentis Radix and detection of its analgesic and anti-inflammatory components by spectrum-effect relationship and multivariate statistical analysis

This study established a spectrum-effect relationship method for screening and quantifying the analgesic and anti-inflammatory active ingredients in Angelicae Pubescentis Radix (AP) by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole mass spectrometry detector analysis (UPLC-QDA). First, the fingerprint of AP was established to determine the common peaks. Next, six batches of AP samples, with significant differences, were selected for evaluation of pharmacological activity. Subsequently, the spectrum-effect relationship was used to screen the active ingredients. Finally, the screened ingredients were quantified using UPLC-QDA. In total, 21 common peaks were identified and four effective compounds (bergapten, columbianetin acetate, osthole and isoimperatorin) were selected using the gray relational analysis and partial least squares regression analysis. Quantitative analysis showed that the content of the four effective compounds was the highest in a randomly selected batch, S7 (Hubei). To our knowledge, this is the first attempt that evaluated the quality and spectrum-effect relationship of AP by quantitative analysis and chemometrics. This study identified the key pharmacologically active components of AP and thereby improved the quality evaluation system of AP. This method has broad application prospects for screening effective components and will be helpful in establishing more reliable, scientific and reasonable quality standards for AP and other traditional Chinese medicines.

Screening for Susceptibility-Related Factors and Biomarkers of Xianling Gubao Capsule-Induced Liver Injury

Although increasing reports from the literature on herbal-related hepatotoxicity, the identification of susceptibility-related factors and biomarkers remains challenging due to idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (IDILI). As a well-known Chinese medicine prescription, Xianling Gubao Capsule (XLGB) has attracted great attention due to reports of potential liver toxicity. But the mechanism behind it is difficult to determine. In this paper, we found that XLGB-induced liver injury belongs to IDILI through the analysis of clinical liver injury cases. In toxicological experiment assessment, co-exposure to XLGB and non-toxic dose of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) could cause evident liver injury as manifested by significantly increased plasma alanine aminotransferase activity and obvious liver histological damage. However, it failed to induce observable liver injury in normal rats, suggesting that mild immune stress may be a susceptibility factor for XLGB-induced idiosyncratic liver injury. Furthermore, plasma cytokines were determined and 15 cytokines (such as IL-1β, IFN-γ, and MIP-2α etc) were acquired by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analysis. The expression of these 15 cytokines in LPS group was significantly up-regulated in contrast to the normal group. Meanwhile, the metabolomics profile showed that mild immune stress caused metabolic reprogramming, including sphingolipid metabolism, phenylalanine metabolism, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. 8 potential biomarkers (such as sphinganine, glycerophosphoethanolamine, and phenylalanine etc.) were identified by correlation analysis. Therefore, these results suggested that intracellular metabolism and immune changes induced by mild immune stress may be important susceptibility mechanisms for XLGB IDILI.

Analytical strategies for the discovery and validation of quality-markers of traditional Chinese medicine

BACKGROUND

Quality control of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the basis of clinical efficacy. Due to the complexity of TCM, it is difficult to unify the quality control, and hinders the further implementation of the quality standardization of TCM. As a new concept, quality-marker (Q-marker) plays a powerful role in promoting the standardization of quality control system of TCM.

HYPOTHESIS/PURPOSE

The present review aims to provide reference and scientific basis for further development of Q-marker and assist standardization of quality control of TCM.

METHODS

Extensive search of various documents and electronic databases such as Pubmed, Royal Society of Chemistry, Science Direct, Springer, Web of Science, and Wiley, etc., were used to search scientific contributions. Other online academic libraries, e.g. Google Scholars, Scopus and national pharmacology literature were also been employed to learn more relevant information about Q-marker.

RESULTS

Q-markers play vital role in promoting the standardization of quality control of TCM. The factors that affect the quality of TCM, the advantages and disadvantages of the analytical techniques commonly used in Q-marker research were reviewed, as well as the systematic research strategies, which were verified by practices.

CONCLUSION

The proposal of Q-marker not only provided a new perspective to break through the bottleneck of current quality control, but also can be used in the evaluation of pharmacological efficiency, therapeutic discovery, toxicology, etc. In addition, the Q-marker analysis strategies summarized in this paper is helpful to standardize the quality control of TCM and promote the internationalization of TCM.

Spectrum-Effect Relationship between UPLC Fingerprints and Antilung Cancer Effect of Si Jun Zi Tang

Nowadays, an increasing number of patients are seriously affected by lung cancer. Si Jun Zi Tang (SJZ), a four-herb Chinese medicine formula first described approximately one thousand years ago, is often prescribed for cancer patients as a complementary therapy. But the research on the effective materials for treating cancer using SJZ was rarely reported. To solve this problem, we evaluate the inhibitory effect of 10 samples of SJZ from different origins on PC9 cells. Ultraperformance liquid chromatography (UPLC) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) along with canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and bioactivity validation were used to investigate the underlying correlation between the chemical ingredients and the antiproliferative effect of SJZ on PC9 cells. The evaluation indicated that 10 batches of SJZ could inhibit proliferation of PC9 cells and there was a notable difference in pharmacological activity between the different SJZ samples. The results of CCA and multivariate statistical analysis indicated that ginsenoside Ro and ginsenoside Rg1 might be active constituents of the antiproliferative effect as determined by spectrum-effect relationships. The results showed that bioassay and spectrum-effect relationships are suitable to associate sample quality with the active ingredient associated with clinical efficacy. And our finding would provide foundation and further understanding of the quality evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine decoction.