Efficacy of Shenmai injection for the treatment of chronic heart failure: A protocol of systematic review

Quantitative profiling of comprehensive composition in compound herbal injections: An NMR approach applied on Shenmai injection

INTRODUCTION

Compound herbal injections (CHIs) can be regarded as a significant innovation in the modernisation of herbal medicine. Therefore, improving the quality control level of CHIs has always been an active research topic in traditional herbal medicine.

OBJECTIVES

In this study, Shenmai injection was used as a representative sample for investigating the ability of proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹ H NMR) in the quality evaluation of CHIs.

METHODS

A quantitative ¹ H NMR method was developed to simultaneously determine the contents of total ginsenosides, polysorbate 80, and 20 primary metabolites in Shenmai injection. Multivariate statistical analysis was combined to compare differences between samples from different manufacturers.

RESULTS

It was found that the combined measurement uncertainty of each component is less than 1.61%, which demonstrates the reliability of the method. Furthermore, the components determined by this method account for up to 92.64% of the total solids, which is an unprecedented success in the analysis of Shenmai injection. In the end, the method was applied to the quality comparison of Shenmai injection from six manufacturers. The results showed that the differences among the samples from the six manufacturers were reflected in multiple types of components.

CONCLUSION

This study fully demonstrates the superiority of the quantitative ¹ H NMR method in comprehensive composition profiling of CHIs, which is conducive to improving the quality control level of Shenmai injection. Further, the present study can be used as a reference study for the research on the quality and safety of CHIs.

Shengmai Yin formula exerts cardioprotective effects on rats with chronic heart failure via regulating Linoleic Acid metabolism

The objective of this study was to investigate the protective effects of Shengmai Yin(SMY) on rats with chronic heart failure(CHF).Sprague-Dawley rats were used to establish a CHF animal model via ligation of the left anterior descending branch of the coronary artery and exhaustive swimming.Echocardiography, serum biochemical indicators and histopathology were used to evaluate the pharmacodynamics of SMY in CHF rats.UPLC-Q-TOF/MS analysis based on serum was performed to identify the potential metabolites in the pathological process of CHF. Metabolic pathway analysis was carried out to elucidate the metabolic network associated with SMY treatment of CHF.Moreover,quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), Western blotting (WB), and Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to measure the RNA and protein expression levels in related pathways. Results revealed that SMY significantly restored the cardiac function of CHF rats, reduced the serum biochemical indicators, and alleviated cardiac histological damage. Metabolomics analysis shows that the therapeutic effect of SMY for CHF involves 14 biomarkers and 8 metabolic pathways, especially linoleic acid pathway, to be influenced, which implied the potential mechanism of SMY in treating CHF. Two key indicators Lipoxygenase arachidonic acid 15 lipoxygenase (ALOX15) and Cytochrome P450 1A2(CYP1A2) of linoleic acid metabolism pathway were verified by RT-PCR, WB and ELISA. Verification result showed that compared with the model group, expression levels of ALOX15 and CYP1A2 in SMY group were lower. In conclusion, SMY has cardioprotective effect on chronic heart failure rats, and its mechanism may be related to linoleic acid metabolism pathway.

The Action of Shenmai Injection on the Inflammation and Proliferation of Smooth Muscle Cells of the Airway in Asthmatic Rats

To observe the effect of transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) channel on the proliferation and inflammation of airway smooth muscle cells (SMC) in asthmatic rats, the rats were randomly allocated into three treatment groups: control, asthma, and Shenmai injection (SMI), with 15 rats in each group. Asthmatic rat models were induced by ovalbumin (OVA) inhalation. Rats in the control and asthma groups were intraperitoneally injected 2 mL NS daily, whereas rats in the SMI treatment group were intraperitoneally injected with 2 mL SMI daily. RT-qPCR and western blotting were used to test for TRPA1 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) mRNA and protein expression. ELISA was used to test the expression of interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-5 (IL-5), and interleukin-13 (IL-13) in the serum. Compared with the control group, there were significantly higher levels of TRPA1 and PCNA mRNA and protein, as well as of IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 in asthmatic rats (P< 0.05). After SMI treatment, there was significantly lower expression of TRPA1, PCNA, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 compared to the levels in asthmatic rats (P < 0.05). TRPA1, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 were highly expressed in the tracheal SMC of asthmatic rats. Inhibiting TRPA1, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 using SMI may be one of the mechanisms that can intervene chronic airway inflammation and asthma proliferation.