NMR-Based Metabonomic Studies on Stomach Heat and Cold Syndromes and Intervention Effects of the Corresponding Formulas

Comparative pharmacokinetics of multi-components in normal and stomach cold syndrome rats after oral administration of Zingiberis Rhizoma - Jujubae Fructus herb pair and its single herb extracts by UHPLC-MS/MS

The Zingiberis Rhizoma - Jujubae Fructus herb pair (ZJHP) is a classic herb pair in traditional Chinese medicine. The herb pair shows the effect of dispelling cold, harmonizing the middle and improving gastrointestinal function, and is widely used for patients with stomach cold syndrome (SCS), stomachache and anemofrigid cold. The gingerols, shogaols, flavonoids and triterpenic acids are the important bioactive ingredients of ZJHP. However, few pharmacokinetic studies have been investigated in vivo for the above compounds. To comprehend the kinetics of active components and promote their curative application, a fast and sensitive ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was established for simultaneous determination of 12 analytes in normal and SCS rats in this study. The results showed that the pharmacokinetic parameters (Cmax, Tmax, t1/2z, MRT0-t, AUC0-t and AUC0-∞) in SCS model were significantly different from those in normal rats. In addition, the pharmacokinetics of rats given ZJHP were also varied from single herb oral administration, especially in model condition. These results indicated that the in vivo processes of the above analytes changed under pathological conditions and the compatibility of the herb pair could significantly influence the absorption of active components, which might provide an insight and further supports for the clinical application of ZJHP.

Soporific Effect of Modified Suanzaoren Decoction and Its Effects on the Expression of CCK-8 and Orexin-A

Suanzaoren decoction (SZRT), a classic Chinese herbal prescription, has been used as a treatment for insomnia for more than a thousand years. However, recent studies have found no significant effects of SZRT as a treatment for insomnia caused by gastric discomfort. Herein, we studied the effects of modified Suanzaoren decoction (MSZRD) on gastrointestinal disorder-related insomnia. The main constituents of MSZRD were spinosin (2.21 mg/g) and 6-feruloylspinosin (0.78 mg/g). A pentobarbital-induced animal model of insomnia showed that MSZRD shortened sleep latency and prolonged sleep time of the male Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice treated for 7 days with oral MSZRD. Sprague-Dawley male rats were treated daily with oral MSZRD or placebo for 11 days and then deprived of sleep for the last 4 days to establish a model of insomnia. Of note, MSZRD-treated animals had significantly improved body weight, organ index scores, and fecal moisture relative to placebo-treated animals, as well as reduced temperature. Sleep-deprived rats exhibited more exploratory behaviors in an open-field anxiety test; however, this effect was significantly reduced in MSZRD-treated animals. We found that MSZRD treatment decreased gastric acid pH, decreased the production of gastrin, pepsin, and Orexin-A, and increased the expression of MTL and CCK-8. Importantly, serum GABA concentration was increased by treatment with MSZRD, as reflected by a decreased Glu/GABA ratio. Treated animals had increased the expression of GAD1, GABARA1, and CCKBR but decreased the expression of Orexin R1. In summary, these results suggest that MSZRD has soporific and gastroprotective effects that may be mediated by differential expression of CCK-8 and Orexin-A.

Integrated Modules Analysis to Explore the Molecular Mechanisms of Phlegm-Stasis Cementation Syndrome with Ischemic Heart Disease

Background: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) has been the leading cause of death for several decades globally, IHD patients usually hold the symptoms of phlegm-stasis cementation syndrome (PSCS) as significant complications. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of PSCS complicated with IHD have not yet been fully elucidated. Materials and Methods: Network medicine methods were utilized to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of IHD phenotypes. Firstly, high-quality IHD-associated genes from both human curated disease-gene association database and biomedical literatures were integrated. Secondly, the IHD disease modules were obtained by dissecting the protein-protein interaction (PPI) topological modules in the String V9.1 database and the mapping of IHD-associated genes to the PPI topological modules. After that, molecular functional analyses (e.g., Gene Ontology and pathway enrichment analyses) for these IHD disease modules were conducted. Finally, the PSCS syndrome modules were identified by mapping the PSCS related symptom-genes to the IHD disease modules, which were further validated by both pharmacological and physiological evidences derived from published literatures. Results: The total of 1,056 high-quality IHD-associated genes were integrated and evaluated. In addition, eight IHD disease modules (the PPI sub-networks significantly relevant to IHD) were identified, in which two disease modules were relevant to PSCS syndrome (i.e., two PSCS syndrome modules). These two modules had enriched pathways on Toll-like receptor signaling pathway (hsa04620) and Renin-angiotensin system (hsa04614), with the molecular functions of angiotensin maturation (GO:0002003) and response to bacterium (GO:0009617), which had been validated by classical Chinese herbal formulas-related targets, IHD-related drug targets, and the phenotype features derived from human phenotype ontology (HPO) and published biomedical literatures. Conclusion: A network medicine-based approach was proposed to identify the underlying molecular modules of PSCS complicated with IHD, which could be used for interpreting the pharmacological mechanisms of well-established Chinese herbal formulas (e.g., Tao Hong Si Wu Tang, Dan Shen Yin, Hunag Lian Wen Dan Tang and Gua Lou Xie Bai Ban Xia Tang). In addition, these results delivered novel understandings of the molecular network mechanisms of IHD phenotype subtypes with PSCS complications, which would be both insightful for IHD precision medicine and the integration of disease and TCM syndrome diagnoses.

Therapeutic Effects of Chinese Medicine Herb Pair, Huzhang and Guizhi, on Monosodium Urate Crystal-Induced Gouty Arthritis in Rats Revealed by Anti-Inflammatory Assessments and NMR-Based Metabonomics

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the therapeutic effects of Huzhang-Guizhi herb pair (HG), firstly included in Hu-Zhang Power documented in Taiping Shenghui Fang, on monosodium urate (MSU) crystals-induced gouty arthritis in rats. We found that pretreatment with HG in rats with gouty arthritis could significantly attenuate the ankle joint swelling, and this beneficial antigout effect might be mediated, at least in part, by inhibiting tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) production in synovial fluid as well as nuclear transcription factor-κB p65 (NF-κB p65) protein expression in synovial tissue. Moreover, metabonomic analysis demonstrated that 5 and 6 potential biomarkers associated with gouty arthritis in plasma and urine, respectively, which were mainly involved in energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and gut microbe metabolism, were identified. HG could reverse the pathological process of MSU-induced gouty arthritis through regulating the disturbed metabolic pathways. These results provided important mechanistic insights into the protective effects of HG against MSU-induced gouty arthritis in rats.

Metabolomics and its application to the evaluation of the efficacy and toxicity of traditional Chinese herb medicines

Traditional Chinese herb medicines (TCHMs) have been used in the treatment of a variety of diseases for thousands of years in Asian countries. The active components of TCHMs usually exert combined synergistic therapeutic effects on multiple targets, but with less potential therapeutic effect based on routine indices than Western drugs. These complex effects make the assessment of the efficacy of TCHMs and the clarification of their underlying mechanisms very challenging, and therefore hinder their wider application and acceptance. Metabolomics is a crucial part of systems biology. It allows the quantitative measurement of large numbers of the low-molecular endogenous metabolites involved in metabolic pathways, and thus reflects the fundamental metabolism status of the body. Recently, dozens of metabolomic studies have been devoted to prove the efficacy/safety, explore the underlying mechanisms, and identify the potential biomarkers to access the action targets of TCHMs, with fruitful results. This article presents an overview of these studies, focusing on the progress made in exploring the pharmacology and toxicology of various herbal medicines.