Pharmacodynamic study on insomnia-curing effects of Shuangxia Decoction in Drosophila melanogaster

Global Analysis the Potential Medicinal Substances of Shuangxia Decoction and the Process In Vivo via Mass Spectrometry Technology

Shuangxia decoction is an effective traditional Chinese medicine formula for treating insomnia. Up to now, there has not been any report about the effective substances. An omics data processing method based on mass spectrometry technology is used to explore the chemical composition changes of Shuangxia decoction, the components absorbed into the blood and brain, and to explore the anti-insomnia mechanism based on molecular docking technology. Forty-nine chemical components in Shuangxia decoction have been identified, and 51 new components generated by co-decoction have been discovered. It was found that 7,404 compounds of Shuangxia decoction were absorbed into the blood. Forty kinds of known compounds were quickly identified, and 15 new compounds generated by co-decoction were also found to be absorbed into the blood. By using UPLC-MS/MS method, it was confirmed that 10 compounds were absorbed into the blood and 9 compounds were absorbed into the brain. Furthermore, it is found that rosmarinic acid is mainly distributed in the hypothalamus and striatum, and caffeic acid is mainly distributed in the hypothalamus, striatum, and hippocampus. Molecular docking results showed rosmarinic acid, danshensu, and HMLA with GABAA receptor have excellent binding characteristics, even surpassing the proligand. Danshensu and HMLA with dopamine D2 receptor also showed good binding energy. Our findings will help to further confirm the mechanism of Shuangxia decoction for relieving insomnia, and we also establish a novel data processing method for supplementing the mechanism of the efficacy of other traditional Chinese medicine formula.

Study on the Sleep-Improvement Effects of Hemerocallis citrina Baroni in Drosophila melanogaster and Targeted Screening to Identify Its Active Components and Mechanism

Hemerocallis citrina Baroni (HC) is an edible plant in Asia, and it has been traditionally used for sleep-improvement. However, the bioactive components and mechanism of HC in sleep-improvement are still unclear. In this study, the sleep-improvement effect of HC hydroalcoholic extract was investigated based on a caffeine-induced insomnia model in Drosophila melanogaster (D. melanogaster), and the ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-Orbitrap-MS) and network pharmacology strategy were further combined to screen systematically the active constituents and mechanism of HC in sleep-improvement. The results suggested HC effectively regulated the number of nighttime activities and total sleep time of D. melanogaster in a dose-dependent manner and positively regulated the sleep bouts and sleep duration of D. melanogaster. The target screening suggested that quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, caffeic acid, and nicotinic acid were the main bioactive components of HC in sleep-improvements. Moreover, the core targets (Akt1, Cat, Ple, and Sod) affected by HC were verified by the expression of the mRNA of D. melanogaster. In summary, this study showed that HC could effectively regulate the sleep of D. melanogaster and further clarifies the multi-component and multi-target features of HC in sleep-improvement, which provides a new insight for the research and utilization of HC.

Integrated Screening of Effective Anti-Insomnia Fractions of Zhi-Zi-Hou-Po Decoction via Drosophila melanogaster and Network Pharmacology Analysis of the Underlying Pharmacodynamic Material and Mechanism

Insomnia is an anabatic epidemiology, while the mechanism is extremely complicated; it remains one of the major scientific challenges in life sciences. Because of the advantage of having a similar genetic background and circadian rhythm as those of humans, the Drosophila melanogaster model organism is hugely popular in sleep-related drug screening studies. Seven-day-old virgin D. melanogaster was used to establish the sleep deprivation model by repeated light stimulation at night. Using PySolo activity monitoring system and Drosophila activity as indices, the effective fractions of Zhi-Zi-Hou-Po decoction (ZZHPD) for insomnia were screened; the content of monoamine neurotransmitters dopamine (DA), 5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid (5-HIAA), Homovanillic acid (HVA), and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in the brain of D. melanogaster were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography-electro-chemical detection. The herb-compound-target-disease target network were further constructed through network pharmacology to identify the potential targets and pathways of ZZHPD in the intervention of insomnia. Finally, the molecular docking method was used for evaluating the binding characteristics of important compounds from ZZHPD with related targets. The results showed that a certain dose of ZZHPD and its petroleum ether, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and n-butanol fractions could improve sleep. The dichloromethane fraction from ZZHPD extracts showed the best anti-insomnia effect among all extracts. It can also reduce the content of DA and HVA in the brain of D. melanogaster and increase 5-HT and 5-HIAA levels. The network pharmacology showed that the main active ingredients in ZZHPD included magnolol, honokiol, hesperidin, and so forth. According to the screening conditions, there were 71 targets and the result of KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that 73 pathways were associated with insomnia, which were primarily involved in inflammatory response, central neurotransmitter regulation, and apoptosis to relieve insomnia. The molecular docking results clarified that naringenin and apigenin have an intimate relationship with GABA_A receptor, histamine H1, orexin receptor type 2, and interleukin-6. The mechanism of relieving insomnia is the result of the interaction of multi-components, multi-targets, and multi-pathways, which provides a certain theoretical basis for the treatment of insomnia and related diseases as well as clinical research.

Shuangxia decoction alleviates p-chlorophenylalanine induced insomnia through the modification of serotonergic and immune system

As a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Shuangxia Decoction (SXD) has been used to treat insomnia in oriental countries for more than thousands of years and it presents remarkable clinical effects. However, its active pharmacological fraction and the mechanism of sedative-hypnotic effects have not been explored. In this paper, we investigated active pharmacological fraction and revealed the detailed mechanisms underlying the sedative-hypnotic effects of SXD. It showed that SXD water extract compared to ethanol extract possessed better sedative effects on locomotion activity in normal mice and increased sleep duration in subhypnotic dose of sodium pentobarbital-treated mice. SXD alleviated p-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) -induced insomnia by increasing the content of 5-HT in cortex [F (4, 55) = 12.67], decreasing the content of dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE). Furthermore, SXD enhanced the expression of 5-HT_1A and 5-HT_2A receptors in hypothalamic and reduced serum levels of IL-1,TNF-α [F (5, 36) = 15.58]. In conclusion, these results indicated that SXD produced beneficial sedative and hypnotic bioactivities mediated by regulating the serotonergic and immune system.