Simultaneous Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Multiple Chemical Constituents in YiQiFuMai Injection by Ultra-Fast Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Ion Trap Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

TCM targets ferroptosis: potential treatments for cancer

Ferroptosis is caused by the accumulation of cellular reactive oxygen species that exceed the antioxidant load that glutathione (GSH) and phospholipid hydroperoxidases with GSH-based substrates can carry When the antioxidant capacity of cells is reduced, lipid reactive oxygen species accumulate, which can cause oxidative death. Ferroptosis, an iron-dependent regulatory necrosis pathway, has emerged as a new modality of cell death that is strongly associated with cancer. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the main methods of cancer treatment. However, resistance to these mainstream anticancer drugs and strong toxic side effects have forced the development of alternative treatments with high efficiency and low toxicity. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have shown that traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), especially herbs or herbal extracts, can inhibit tumor cell growth and metastasis by inducing ferroptosis, suggesting that they could be promising agents for cancer treatment. This article reviews the current research progress on the antitumor effects of TCMs through the induction of ferroptosis. The aim of these studies was to elucidate the potential mechanisms of targeting ferroptosis in cancer, and the findings could lead to new directions and reference values for developing better cancer treatment strategies.

Head-to-Head Comparison of High-Performance Liquid Chromatography versus Nuclear Magnetic Resonance for the Quantitative Analysis of Carbohydrates in Yiqi Fumai Lyophilized Injection

Carbohydrate analysis can be used as a standard analysis for quality control of industries of plants, foods and pharmaceuticals. Quantitative ¹H NMR spectroscopy (qNMR) is an excellent alternative to chromatography-based mixture analysis. However, the application of qNMR in sugar analysis has rarely been reported. In this study, the performance of qNMR in sugar analysis was investigated and compared with the results from HPLC analysis. A head-to-head comparison of qNMR (internal and external standard methods) versus HPLC (PMP pre-column derivatization HPLC, HPLC-RID and HPLC-ELSD) based on quantitative analysis of four carbohydrates (fructose, glucose, sucrose and maltose) in Yiqi Fumai lyophilized injection (YQFM) is presented. Both assays showed similar performance characteristics, including linearity range, accuracy, precision and recovery, and analysis times of less than 30 min/sample. After methodological validation, both qNMR and HPLC have good accuracy, precision and stability. Indeed, the qNMR method is simple, sensitive and rapid in quantifying the four sugars. By analysis of variance (ANOVA) for sugar content with HPLC and qNMR methods, we demonstrated that the two analytical methods had no significant difference and could be used interchangeably for the quantitative analysis of carbohydrates.

Research Progress on Autophagy Regulation by Active Ingredients of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Treatment of Acute Lung Injury

Autophagy is a highly conserved process that maintains cell stability in eukaryotes, participates in the turnover of intracellular substances to maintain cell function, helps to resist pathogen invasion, and improves cell tolerance to environmental changes. Autophagy has been observed in many diseases, and the symptoms of these diseases are significantly improved by regulating autophagy. Autophagy is also involved in the development of lung diseases. Studies have shown that autophagy may play a beneficial or harmful role in acute lung injury (ALI), and ALI has been treated with traditional Chinese medicine designed to promote or inhibit autophagy. In this paper, the molecular mechanism and common pathways regulating autophagy and the relationship between autophagy and ALI are introduced, and the active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine that improve ALI symptoms by regulating autophagy are summarized.

The chemical components, action mechanisms, and clinical evidences of YiQiFuMai injection in the treatment of heart failure

YiQiFuMai injection (YQFM), derived from Shengmai Powder, is wildly applied in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart disease and chronic cardiac insufficiency. YiQiFuMai injection is mainly composed of Radix of Panax ginseng C.A. Mey. (Araliaceae), Radix of Ophiopogon japonicus (Thunb.) Ker Gawl (Liliaceae), and Fructus of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill (Schisandraceae), and Triterpene saponins, steroidal saponins, lignans, and flavonoids play the vital role in the potency and efficacy. Long-term clinical practice has confirmed the positive effect of YiQiFuMai injection in the treatment of heart failure, and few adverse events have been reported. In addition, the protective effect of YiQiFuMai injection is related to the regulation of mitochondrial function, anti-apoptosis, amelioration of oxidant stress, inhibiting the expression of inflammatory mediators, regulating the expression of miRNAs, maintaining the balance of matrix metalloproteinases/tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (MMP/TIMP) and anti-hypoxia.

Chemical Variations among Shengmaisan-Based TCM Patent Drugs by Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Hybrid Quadrupole Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry

Shengmaisan (SMS) is a famous traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula to treat coronary heart diseases. It has been developed into several TCM patent drugs to meet the demands of different patients. In this study, a research strategy was proposed to reveal the chemical variations among four SMS-based patent drugs, including Shengmai Oral Solution (Shengmaiyin, SMY), Shengmai Capsule (Shengmai Jiaonang, SMJN), Yiqi Fumai Injection (YQFMI), and Yiqi Fumai Capsule (Yiqi Fumai Jiaonang, YQJN). Firstly, 227 compounds were tentatively identified using an Orbitrap-MS in the full scan/dd-MS2 mode. Secondly, untargeted metabolomics analysis suggested that ginsenosides, steroidal saponins, and lignans were the main types of differential compounds for the four patent drugs. Finally, the contents of 25 compounds were simultaneously determined in 30 batches of samples in the parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) mode. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) revealed the contents of ginsenosides Re, Rg1, Rb1, Ro, and Rg3, and schisandrin showed the highest intergroup variations. These compounds were chemical markers to differentiate the SMS-based patent drugs.

HPLC-QTOF/MS-based metabolomics to explore the molecular mechanisms of Yiqi Fumai Lyophilized Injection in heart failure mice

Chronic heart failure is a common and fatal disease triggered by loss of normal cardiac function. Yiqi Fumai Lyophilized Injection is widely used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, especially chronic heart failure. In this study, a model of chronic heart failure in mice was established with permanent coronary artery ligation followed by Yiqi Fumai Lyophilized Injection intervention for 14 days. Then, the endogenous metabolites of mice plasma and urine samples were screened through nontargeted metabolomics techniques. The results indicated that Yiqi Fumai Lyophilized Injection treatment changed the metabolic pattern of chronic heart failure and regulated valine, leucine, and isoleucine biosynthesis, taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, histidine metabolism and arginine biosynthesis, etc. Finally, the cardioprotective mechanism of Yiqi Fumai Lyophilized Injection was further verified in the mouse model of chronic heart failure and angiotensin II-induced cardiac fibroblasts based on metabolomics. The results showed that Yiqi Fumai Lyophilized Injection could inhibit myocardial fibrosis to improve chronic heart failure. This study firstly elucidated the metabolic network and pathways regulated by Yiqi Fumai Lyophilized Injection, which might facilitate the realization of the clinically accurate application of Yiqi Fumai Lyophilized Injection in the treatment of chronic heart failure.

Fingerprint Analysis and Quantitative Determination of Fourteen Active Components in the Traditional Chinese Medicinal Preparation Feiyangchangweiyan Capsule by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS

FeiYangchangweiyan capsule (FY capsule), a traditional Chinese medicinal preparation consisting of three medicinal herbs, has been used to treat bacterial dysentery, acute, and chronic gastroenteritis for several decades. In this study, a novel, convenient, accurate, and valid method was developed by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with diode array detection (DAD) to obtain a chromatographic fingerprint of FeiYangchangweiyan capsule (FY capsule). Then, fourteen peaks were identified according to MS/MS fragmentation behavior of the reference standards by using HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS analysis. At the same time, the fingerprint similarity was calculated and the contents of known ingredients were also determined simultaneously. The result demonstrated that the HPLC fingerprint combining similarity evaluation and quantification analysis can be successfully applied to control the quality of FY capsule.

Novel applications of mass spectrometry-based metabolomics in herbal medicines and its active ingredients: Current evidence

Current evidence shows that herbal medicines could be beneficial for the treatment of various diseases. However, the complexities present in chemical compositions of herbal medicines are currently an obstacle for the progression of herbal medicines, which involve unclear bioactive compounds, mechanisms of action, undetermined targets for therapy, non-specific features for drug metabolism, etc. To overcome those issues, metabolomics can be a great to improve and understand herbal medicines from the small-molecule metabolism level. Metabolomics could solve scientific difficulties with herbal medicines from a metabolic perspective, and promote drug discovery and development. In recent years, mass spectrometry-based metabolomics was widely applied for the analysis of herbal constituents in vivo and in vitro. In this review, we highlight the value of mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and metabolism to address the complexity of herbal medicines in systems pharmacology, and to enhance their biomedical value in biomedicine, to shed light on the aid that mass spectrometry-based metabolomics can offer to the investigation of its active ingredients, especially, to link phytochemical analysis with the assessment of pharmacological effect and therapeutic potential. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Mass Spec Rev.

YiQiFuMai Powder Injection Attenuates Coronary Artery Ligation-Induced Heart Failure Through Improving Mitochondrial Function via Regulating ROS Generation and CaMKII Signaling Pathways

The YiQiFuMai powder injection (YQFM), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescription re-developed based on Sheng-Mai-San, is widely applied for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However, its potential molecular mechanism remains obscure. The present study was designed to observe the effects of YQFM and underlying mechanisms on coronary artery ligation (CAL)-induced heart failure (HF) and cell hypoxia of 24 h oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs). HF was induced by permanent CAL for 2 weeks in ICR mice. The results demonstrated that YQFM significantly attenuated CAL-induced HF via improving the cardiac function, cardiac systolic function, cardiac structure impairment, cardiac histological features and fibrosis. YQFM markedly attenuated mitochondrial dysfunction through improving mitochondrial morphology, increasing mitochondria membrane potential (Δψm), mitochondrial ROS generation and expression of Mitofusin-2 (Mfn2), meanwhile, decreasing phosphorylation of dynamin-related protein 1 (p-Drp1). Mechanistically, YQFM could significantly decrease the expression of isoforms of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase subunit NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2), p67^phox and NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4), ultimately reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. In addition, YQFM could down-regulate expression of calcium voltage-gated channel subunit α1C (CACNA1C) and phosphorylation of calmodulin dependent protein kinase II (p-CaMKII). These results suggest that YQFM ameliorates mitochondrial function in HF mice, partially through inhibiting ROS generation and CaMKII signaling pathways. Therefore, the present study provided scientific evidence for the underlying mechanism of YQFM.

Yiqi Fumai lyophilized injection attenuates doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity in rats by inhibition of oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis

Doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the most effective antineoplastic drugs, however, its organ toxicity inhibits the clinical utility. This study was aimed at investigating the protective effects of Yiqi Fumai lyophilized injection (YQFM) against DOX-induced tissue injury and exploring the mechanisms which mediated reactive oxygen species (ROS), inflammation and apoptosis. The experiment was as follows: rats were subjected to an intraperitoneal injection (i.p.) of YQFM (0.481 g kg-1, i.p.) for 12 days; DOX (5 mg kg-1, i.p.) was administered on the 4th, 8th and 12th days to achieve a cumulative dose of 15 mg kg-1. Pretreatment of YQFM significantly ameliorated intracellular damage and dysfunction of the heart, liver and kidneys via decreasing activities of injury indexes. The levels of lipid peroxidation and glutathione depletion were clearly reduced following YQFM pretreatment, meanwhile the activities of glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase were elevated. Additionally administering YQFM could mitigate the cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity via reducing levels of inflammatory factors and decreasing apoptosis. Accordingly, this study indicated that YQFM attenuated DOX-induced toxicity by ameliorating organ function, decreasing ROS production, and preventing excessive inflammation and apoptosis.

Simultaneous LC-MS quantification of anthocyanins and non-anthocyanin phenolics from blueberries with widely divergent profiles and biological activities

A sensitive and straightforward LC-IT-TOF-MS method was validated for the profiling and simultaneous quantification of anthocyanins, flavan-3-ols, flavonols, phenolic acids, and resveratrol in blueberry genotypes with fruit color ranging from deep purple (Vaccinium angustifolium) to various shades of pink (crosses of V. corymbosum, V. darrowii, and V. ashei). Standard calibration curves were linear for all analytes with correlation coefficients >0.99. The relative standard deviation for intra- and inter-day precision was lower than 10%. The method allowed an easy and selective identification and quantification of phenolics in blueberries with divergent profiles. The in vitro antioxidant assay results were strongly correlated with total phenolics and total anthocyanin content. Lowbush blueberry extracts (50 μg/mL) reduced ROS and NO production, and inhibited the transcription of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-6β, COX2, iNOS, and IL-6 in the in vitro assays at much lower concentrations than pink fruited berries (250 μg/mL).

Chemical Analysis and Multi-Component Determination in Chinese Medicine Preparation Bupi Yishen Formula Using Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography With Linear Ion Trap-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry and Triple-Quadrupole Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Bupi Yishen Formula (BYF), a Chinese medicine preparation, has been clinically applied for the recovery of chronic kidney disease and for delaying its progress. Nevertheless, the chemical components in BYF have yet to be fully clarified. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with linear ion trap-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap-MSⁿ) and triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-TQ-MS/MS) methods were developed for qualitative chemical profiling and multi-components quantitative analysis in BYF. The chromatographic separation was performed on a Phenomenex Kinetex C₁₈ column (2.1 × 100 mm i.d., 1.7 μm) using gradient elution of water (A) and acetonitrile (B) both containing 0.1% formic acid. Eighty-six compounds, including flavones, saponins, phenolic acids, and other compounds were authenticated or temporarily deduced according to their retention behaviors, mass mensuration, and characteristic fragment ions with those elucidated reference substances or literatures. Among the herbal medicinal materials of the formula, Astragali Radix, Codonopsis Radix, Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix Rhizoma, and Polygoni Multiflori Radix Praeparata contributed to the bulk of the dissolved metabolites of the formula extraction. In addition, seven analytes were simultaneously determined by UHPLC-TQ-MS/MS, which was validated and has managed to determine major components in BYF. The study indicated that the established qualitative and quantitative methods would be potent and dependable analytical tools for characterizing multi-constituent in complex prescriptions decoction and provided a basis for the evaluation of bioactive components in BYF.

YiQiFuMai Powder Injection attenuates coronary artery ligation-induced myocardial remodeling and heart failure through modulating MAPKs signaling pathway

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

YiQiFuMai Powder Injection (YQFM), a traditional Chinese medicine prescription re-developed based on Sheng-Mai-San, is a classical and traditional therapeutic for clinical heart failure (HF) and angina. However, its potential mechanism against HF remains unclear.

AIM OF THE STUDY

The present study observes the therapeutic role of YQFM and mechanisms underlying its effects on coronary artery ligation (CAL)-induced myocardial remodeling (MR) and HF.

METHODS

MR and HF were induced by permanent CAL for 2 weeks in ICR mice. Then mice were treated with YQFM (0.13g/kg, 0.26g/kg and 0.53g/kg) once a day until 2 weeks later. Cardiac structure and function were evaluated by echocardiography. Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase (CK) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured by biochemical kits and cardiomyocyte morphology was assessed by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. Myocardial hydroxyproline (HYP), serum amino-terminal pro-peptide of pro-collagen type III (PIIINP), and Masson's trichrome staining were employed to evaluate cardiac fibrosis. Circulating level of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) was tested by ELISA kit to predict prognosis of CAL-induced HF. Effects of YQFM on the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) pathway after CAL operation was evaluated by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry assay.

RESULTS

YQFM (0.53g/kg) improved the left ventricular (LV) function and structure impairment after 2 weeks in CAL mice. YQFM administration also decreased LDH and CK activities, circulating levels of MDA, PIIINP, NT-proBNP, and HYP contents. Moreover, YQFM ameliorated cardiac injury and fibrosis. Furthermore, YQFM (0.53g/kg) inhibited the myocardial phosphorylation of MAPKs in HF mice.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that YQFM attenuates CAL-induced HF via improving cardiac function, attenuating structure damage, oxidative stress, necrosis, collagen deposition, and fibrosis. In addition, YQFM ameliorates cardiac remodeling and HF, partially through inhibiting the MAPKs signaling pathways. These data provide insights and mechanisms into the widely application of YQFM in patients with HF, MI and other ischemic heart diseases.

2-Benzyl-benzofurans from the tubers of Ophiopogon japonicus

Background

The overproduction of nitric oxide (NO) is known to involve in various inflammatory processes. A methanol extract of the tubers of Ophiopogon japonicus was found to strongly inhibit NO production. The present paper deals with the isolation, structural identification and NO inhibitory effect of five compounds isolated from the MeOH extract of O. japonicus tubers.

Results

Three new compounds were elucidated to be (2R)-(4-methoxybenzyl)-5,7-dimethyl-6-hydroxyl-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran (1), 2-(2-hydroxyl-4-methoxy-benzyl)-5-methyl-6-methoxyl-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran (2), and 2-(4-hydroxy-benzyl)-5,6-dihydroxybenzofuran (3). In addition, two known compounds were isolated from a natural source for the first time including 2-(4-methoxy-benzyl)-6,7-dimethoxyl-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran (4), and 2-(4-methoxy-benzyl)-6,7-methylenedioxy-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran (5). The absolute configuration of compound 1 was determined by experimental and calculated circular dichroism spectra. The effects of the isolated compounds on LPS-induced NO production in RAW264.7 cells were evaluated. Compound 1 and 2 showed the inhibitory activity with IC₅₀ values of 11.4 and 29.1 μM, respectively.

Conclusions

The class of 2-benzyl-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran is uncommon in nature. In this work, three such compounds were isolated from O. japonicus. Two of them showed promising anti-inflammatory activity by inhibition of NO production.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13065-017-0242-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.