Pharmacokinetic and Metabolism Studies of Curculigoside C by UPLC-MS/MS and UPLC-QTOF-MS

Study on the Comprehensive Phytochemicals and the Anti-Ulcerative Colitis Effect of Saussurea pulchella

BACKGROUND

Saussurea pulchella (SP) is a traditional medicinal plant that is widely used in folk medicine because of its diverse biological activities, particularly its anti-inflammatory effects. However, the alleviation effect of SP on ulcerative colitis (UC) has not yet been realized.

PURPOSE

To investigate the chemical composition and therapeutic effect of SP extract against UC.

METHODS

First, qualitative and quantitative analysis of SP 75% ethanol extract was performed by UPLC-Q/TOF-MS. Second, a dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) model of UC mice was developed to study the effects of SP on the symptoms, inflammatory factors, oxidative stress indexes and colon histopathology. Third, an integration of network pharmacology with metabolomics was performed to investigate the key metabolites, biological targets and metabolisms closely related to the effect of SP.

RESULTS

From the SP ethanol extract, 149 compounds were identified qualitatively and 20 were determined quantitatively. The SP could dose-dependently decrease the DAI score, spleen coefficient and the levels of TNF-α, IL-6, iNOS, MPO and MDA; increase the colon length, GSH level and SOD activity; and protect the intestinal barrier in the UC mice. Moreover, 10 metabolite biomarkers,18 targets and 5 metabolisms were found to play crucial roles in the treatment of UC with SP.

CONCLUSIONS

SP 75% ethanol extract could effectively alleviate the progression of UC and, therefore, could be classified as a novel natural treatment for UC.

Integrated Lipidomic and Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Lipid Metabolism in Foxtail Millet (Setaria italica)

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) as the main traditional crop in China, is rich in many kinds of high quality fatty acids (FAs). In this study, Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-time-of-flight-tandem mass spectrometer (UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) was used to determine the lipids of JG35 and JG39. A total of 2,633 lipid molecules and 31 lipid subclasses were identified, mainly including thirteen kinds of glycerophospholipids (GP), eleven kinds of glycerolipids (GL), four kinds of sphingolipids (SP), two kinds of fatty acyls (FA) and one kind of sterol (ST). Among them JG35 had higher contents of diacylglycerols (DG) and ceramides (Cer), while triacylglycerols, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, phosphatidic acid, sterol, fatty acyls and pardiolipin (TG, PE, PA, ST, FA and CL) were higher in JG39. Meantime, the correlation analysis of lipidomics and transcriptomics was used to map the main differential lipid metabolism pathways of foxtail millet. The results shown that a differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of FATA/B for the synthesis of FA was highly expressed in JG35, and the related genes for the synthesis DG (ACCase, KAS, HAD, KCS, LACS and GAPT), TG (DGAT and PDAT) and CL (CLS) were highly expressed in JG39. The results of this study will provide a theoretical basis for the future study of lipidomics, improvement of lipid quality directionally and breeding of idiosyncratic quality varieties in foxtail millet.

Pharmacokinetic Characterization of ZT55, A Novel Indole Derivative Isolated from Radix Isatidis, using Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass and Q-TOF/Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Background:

ZT55 is a novel natural product isolated from Radix isatidis. It is a highlyselective tyrosine kinase inhibitor against myeloproliferative neoplasms. Although earlier research has described the pharmacodynamic properties of ZT55 in vivo and in vitro, the quantitative determination and pharmacokinetic profile in vivo have not been thoroughly studied.

Methods:

A novel liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the quantification of ZT55 in rat plasma. A Waters symmetry C18 column was used for chromatographic separation; 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile and 0.1% formic aqueous solution was used as the mobile phase. Detection was performed by Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) mode using electrospray ionization in the positive ion mode. UPLC-QTOF-MS was used for the identification of metabolites.

Results:

The method was linear (R2=0.9988) over the concentration range of 1-2500 ng/mL. The lower limit of quantification was 1 ng/mL. The intra-day and inter-day precision of ZT55 showed a relative standard deviation within 8.47%, whereas the accuracy (RE) ranged from -4.84% to 4.45%. The recoveries ranged from 92.89% to 97.21%. ZT55 reached the highest plasma concentration at 0.5h. The peak concentrations with three dosages were 103.59±10.11, 185.23±29.56, and 355.98±28.86 ng/mL. The AUC0-24 of three dosages were 874.70±72.33, 433.80±49.33, and 231.65±19.41 ng•h/ml respectively. Five metabolites of ZT55 from plasma were confirmed. The main pathways of ZT55 in vivo were hydrolysis, N-dealkylation, glycosylation, and sulfonation.

Conclusions:

LC-MS/MS method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of ZT55 after oral administration and intravenous. ZT55 exhibited rapid oral absorption, high elimination, and low absolute bioavailability. This study provides important pharmacokinetic and metabolism information for further pharmacological and toxicological research on ZT55.

Anti-Obesity Attributes; UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS-Based Metabolite Profiling and Molecular Docking Insights of Taraxacum officinale

The naturopathic treatment of obesity is a matter of keen interest to develop efficient natural pharmacological routes for disease management with low or negligible toxicity and side effects. For this purpose, optimized ultrasonicated hydroethanolic extracts of Taraxacum officinale were evaluated for antiobesity attributes. The 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl method was adopted to evaluate antioxidant potential. Porcine pancreatic lipase inhibitory assay was conducted to assess the in vitro antiobesity property. Ultra-high performance chromatography equipped with a mass spectrometer was utilized to profile the secondary metabolites in the most potent extract. The 60% ethanolic extract exhibited highest extract yield (25.05 ± 0.07%), total phenolic contents (123.42 ± 0.007 mg GAE/g DE), total flavonoid contents (55.81 ± 0.004 RE/g DE), DPPH-radical-scavenging activity (IC50 = 81.05 ± 0.96 µg/mL) and pancreatic lipase inhibitory properties (IC50 = 146.49 ± 4.24 µg/mL). The targeted metabolite fingerprinting highlighted the presence of high-value secondary metabolites. Molecular-binding energies computed by docking tool revealed the possible contribution towards pancreatic lipase inhibitory properties of secondary metabolites including myricetin, isomangiferin, icariside B4, kaempferol and luteolin derivatives when compared to the standard drug orlistat. In vivo investigations revealed a positive impact on the lipid profile and obesity biomarkers of obese mice. The study presents Taraxacum officinale as a potent source of functional bioactive ingredients to impart new insights into the existing pool of knowledge of naturopathic approaches towards obesity management.

Integrated pathological cell fishing and network pharmacology approach to investigate main active components of Er-Xian decotion for treating osteoporosis

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Oxidative damage to osteoblasts was a key factor in the development of osteoporosis. Er-Xian Decotion (EXD) is widely used in China for the treatment of osteoporosis, which has a variety of antioxidant active ingredients. EXD may be an important source of protection against oxidative damage in osteoblasts, but the anti-osteoporotic active components of EXD is currently unclear.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This work established an effective and reliable drug screening method to find main active ingredients in EXD (M-EXD) that can protect osteoblasts against oxidative stress and achieve anti-osteoporosis effects.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

H₂O₂-induced osteoblast cell fishing with UHPLC-QTOF/MS was firstly used to discover the potential active components from EXD. Afterword, the EXD compound-osteoporosis target network was constructed using network pharmacology, thus potentially anti-osteoporosis ingredients were founded, and their combination were defined as the M-EXD. Finally, pharmacology effects of M-EXD was evaluated by ovariectomized rats, prednisolone induced-zebrafish and H₂O₂-induced osteoblasts.

RESULTS

40 candidate active ingredients in EXD were initially screened out via pathological cell fishing. According to network pharmacology result, M-EXD consisted of 13 ingredients since they had a close relationship with 65 osteoporosis-related targets. Pharmacological evaluation showed that M-EXD significantly ameliorated oxidative stress in H₂O₂-induced osteoblast model, evidently reversed the activity of ALP, ROS, GSH-px, NO and MDA compared with the model group. M-EXD showed better anti-oxidative activities than individual ingredients, presenting obvious synergetic effects. In osteoporosis rat and zebrafish models, M-EXD also demonstrated good anti-osteoporotic properties by mitigating the osteoporosis bone loss and increasing serum bone morphogenetic protein 2, and reversing osteocalcin expression in bone tissue. It significantly ameliorated oxidative stress in the in-vivo models. Moreover, M-EXD and EXD showed similar anti-osteoporotic and anti-oxidative properties, while the rest components of EXD had no satisfactory anti-osteoporotic efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS

Our work successfully identified the main active components in EXD, which could represent the efficacy of EXD on treating osteoporosis, and meanwhile, it also provided an effective strategy to investigate active ingredients from natural medicines, which might be helpful for drug development and application.