Large Volume Direct Injection Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry-Based Comparative Pharmacokinetic Study between Single and Combinatory Uses of Carthamus tinctorius Extract and Notoginseng Total Saponins

Development and validation of a dried blood spots assay for metabolic profiling of ginsenosides using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer., a famous and valuable traditional Chinese medicine with thousand years of history for its healthcare and therapeutic effects. It is necessary and meaningful to study the pharmacokinetic behavior of ginsenosides in vivo as they are the most active components. Dried blood spots (DBS) are a mature and advanced blood collection method with meet the needs for the measurement of numerous analytes.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This study aimed to explore the feasibility on DBS in the metabolic profile analysis of complex herbal products.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of ginsenosides. The preparation of DBS samples was conducted by spiking the whole blood with analytes to obtain 20 μL of blood spots on Whatman 903 collection card. A punched dish of 10 mm in diameter was extracted with 70 % methanol aqueous solution, digoxin was used as an internal standard. Target compounds were separated on a Waters T3 column (2.1 × 100 mm, 1.8 μm) with acetonitrile and water (0.1 % formic acid) at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min.

RESULTS

The various ginsenosides showed good linearity in the range of 1-2000 ng/mL. The extraction recoveries and matrix effects of the target analytes were above 82.2%. The intra- and inter-batch accuracy and precision were within the limits of ≤15% for all tested concentrations. Moreover, the collected dried blood spot samples could be stably stored at room temperature for 14 days and 4 °C for 1 month without being affected. And it is delightful that the DBS-based analysis is compatible or even superior to the conventional protein precipitation in terms of sensitivity, linearity, and stability. In particular, the target analytes are stable in the DBS sampling under normal storing condition and the sensitivity for some trace metabolites of ginsenosides, such as 20(S)-Rg3, 20(R)-Rg3, F1, Rk1, Rg5, etc. increases 3-4 folds as evaluated by LLOQ.

CONCLUSIONS

The established method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic studies of ginseng extract in mice, this suggests a more feasible strategy for pharmacokinetic study of traditional and natural medicines both in animal tests and clinical trials.

Guhong injection mitigates myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury by activating GST P to inhibit ASK1-JNK/p38 pathway

BACKGROUND

Guhong injection (GHI), a novel compound preparation that is composed of a chemical drug, namely aceglutamide, and the aqueous extract of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), exhibits extreme antioxidative, antiapoptotic, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects. Since oxidative stress, apoptosis, and inflammatory response are all the dominant mechanisms of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (MI/R) injury, we probe into the protective mechanism of GHI on MI/R injury for the first time.

METHODS

In this research, we first employed molecular docking to determine whether three active ingredients in GHI, acetylglutamine (NAG), hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA), and syringin, possessed the potential activity to modulate the protein, glutathione S-transferase P (GST P). We further identified the protective effect of GHI on myocardial tissue with TTC staining, HE staining, TUNEL staining, and ELISA, and on H9c2 with flow cytometry and ELISA. We next explored whether the cardioprotective effect of GHI on left anterior descending ligation-reperfusion in rats and hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) in H9c2 cells was related to activate GST P to inhibit ASK1-JNK/p38 pathway via approaches of qRT-PCR and Western blot.

RESULTS

Results of molecular docking indicated that all three compounds spontaneously docked to GST P, among them the binding affinities of both HSYA and syringin to GST P were higher than NAG. In vivo, GHI reduced myocardial infarction size and mitigated myocardial pathological injury. In vitro, GHI enhanced cell viability and extenuated depolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential. In addition, the results of in vivo and in vitro studies demonstrated that the cardioprotection of GHI was associated with improving the mRNA and protein expression levels of GST P to modulate oxidative stress, and inhibiting the levels of mRNA expression and protein phosphorylation of ASK1, JNK, and p38. However, the suppressed effect of GHI on ASK1-JNK/p38 pathway was reversed by ethacrynic acid (EA, a GST inhibitor), indicating that the regulation of GHI on ASK1-JNK/p38 was related to the activity of GST P. Besides, the in vitro results of qRT-PCR and western-blot also certified that the inhibited JNK and p38 further reduced Bax expression and elevated Bcl-2 expression to reduce the expression of caspase-3 to exert anti-apoptosis effects.

CONCLUSION

Taken together, the cardioprotection of GHI mainly incarnated in activating GST P to relieve oxidation properties, thereby inhibiting ASK1-JNK/p38 pathway to suppress apoptosis.

Comparative pharmacokinetics of the main active components in normal and ulcerative colitis rats after oral administration of Zingiberis Rhizoma-Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma herb pair and its single herb extracts by LC-MS/MS

Zingiberis Rhizoma and Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma are usually used together for the treatment of ulcerative colitis in clinical practices. However, their compatibility mechanism remains unclear. In this study, a rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for simultaneous quantification of ginsenoside Re, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Rb1, and 6-gingerol in rat plasma after oral administration of Zingiberis Rhizoma-Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma herb pair and its single herb extracts. The calibration curves exhibited good linearity, with correlation coefficients of more than 0.993. The precision deviations of intra- and interday analysis were within 10.66%, and accuracy error ranged from -12.74 to 11.56%. The average recoveries of analytes were higher than 76.60% and the matrix effects were minimal. Thus, the validated method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of four ingredients in normal and ulcerative colitis rat plasma. The results indicated that the pharmacokinetic parameters of four analytes in normal and model groups showed significant differences. The larger exposure (the mean AUC0-t of ginsenoside Re, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Rb1, and 6-gingerol were increased by 50.93, 141.90, 3.68, and 37.25%, respectively) and slower elimination (the CLz/F of ginsenoside Re, ginsenoside Rg1, and 6-gingerol were decreased by 52.94, 83.64, and 32.18%, respectively) were observed in ulcerative colitis rats. Furthermore, compared with single herbs, the analytes in rat plasma after oral administration of combined extracts presented relatively high systemic exposure levels with AUC0-t > 2000 h·ng/mL and Cmax > 200 ng/mL. Collectively, the differences of pharmacokinetic characteristics revealed the synergistic effect of Zingiberis Rhizoma-Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma herb pair, which provided a valuable and reliable basis for its clinical application in the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

A Novel System for Evaluating the Inhibition Effect of Drugs on Cytochrome P450 Enzymes in vitro Based on Human-Induced Hepatocytes (hiHeps)

Cytochrome P450 (CYP) is the most important phase I drug-metabolizing enzyme, and the effect of drugs on CYP enzymes can lead to decreased pharmacological efficacy or enhanced toxicity of drugs, but there are many deficiencies in the evaluation models of CYP enzymes in vitro. Human-induced hepatocytes (hiHeps) derived from human fibroblasts by transdifferentiation have mature hepatocyte characteristics. The aim was to establish a novel evaluation system for the effect of drugs on CYP3A4, 1A2, 2B6, 2C9, and 2C19 in vitro based on hiHeps. Curcumin can inhibit many CYP enzymes in vitro, and so the inhibition of curcumin on CYP enzymes was compared by human liver microsomes, human hepatocytes, and hiHeps using UPLC-MS and the cocktail method. The results showed that the IC₅₀ values of CYP enzymes in the hiHeps group were similar to those in the hepatocytes group, which proved the effectiveness and stability of the novel evaluation system in vitro. Subsequently, the evaluation system was applied to study the inhibitory activity of notoginseng total saponins (NS), safflower total flavonoids (SF), and the herb pair of NS–SF on five CYP enzymes. The mechanism of improving efficacy after NS and SF combined based on CYP enzymes was elucidated in vitro. The established evaluation system will become a powerful tool for the research of the effect of drugs on the activity of CYP enzymes in vitro, which has broad application prospects in drug research.

Comparative pharmacokinetics of Ding-Zhi-Xiao-Wan preparation and its single herbs in rats by using a putative multiple-reaction monitoring UPLC-MS/MS method

INTRODUCTION

The formula of Chinese medicine, Ding-Zhi-Xiao-Wan (DZXW), has the distinct feature of compatibility therapy, which is attributed to the interactions of multi-herbs. However, the quantification problem caused by the absence of pure reference standards is a bottleneck to clarify the compatibility advantages from the perspective of pharmacokinetics (PKs).

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to develop a putative multiple-reaction monitor (PMRM) strategy for exploring the comparative PKs of DZXW and its single herbs.

METHODS

First, precursor ion and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) chromatograms were obtained via ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight MS (UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS) under different collision energy (CE) values. Then, the two most abundance ions in the MS/MS chromatograms were chosen as product ions, and CE values were selected according to the abundance of the product ion peaks. Next, a PMRM strategy consisting of optimal MRM parameters was constructed. Finally, the established PMRM parameters were imported to UHPLC coupled with triple quadrupole MS (UHPLC-TQ-MS) for quantification.

RESULTS

The strategy was exemplified by the comparative PK study of DZXW and its single herbs. This strategy could extend the PK scopes of multi-components. The quantitative results displayed substantial variations in PK parameters between DZXW and its single herbs.

CONCLUSION

The PK parameters indicated that the DZXW formula could increase the exposure levels of most ingredients and reduce the maximum concentration (C_max ) of Radix Polygala, indicating that herb compatibility could produce synergistic effects and diminish possible toxic effects. This study provides a viable orientation for the compatibility investigation of traditional Chinese medicine.

The synergistic mechanism of total saponins and flavonoids in Notoginseng-Safflower pair against myocardial ischemia uncovered by an integrated metabolomics strategy

The Notoginseng-Safflower pair composed of Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F. H. Chen and Carthamus tinctorius L. has remarkable clinical efficacy for preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases in China. Notoginseng total saponins (NS) and Safflower total flavonoids (SF) are the major effective ingredients in Notoginseng and Safflower, respectively. Though our previous study showed that the combination of NS and SF (NS-SF) exhibits significant cardioprotective effects for myocardial ischemia (MI), there might be difference in their action mechanisms. However, the anti-MI characteristics of individual NS and SF remains unclear. Herein, an integrated metabolomics strategy coupled with multiple biological methods were employed to investigate the cardioprotective effects of NS and SF alone or in combination against isoproterenol (ISO)-induced MI and to further explore the synergistic relationship between NS and SF. Our results demonstrated that pretreatments with NS, SF, and NS-SF all showed cardioprotective effects against MI injury and NS-SF exhibited to be the best. Interestingly, the results demonstrated that NS and SF exhibited differentiated metabolic targets and mediators in the glycerophospholipid metabolism. Furthermore, administration of NS alone exhibited greater effects on reversing the elevated the proinflammatory metabolites and mediators in MI rats compared to SF alone. However, individual SF showed greater amelioration of MI-disturbed antioxidant and prooxidative metabolites and better inhibition of the oxidative stress than NS alone. Collectively, our study demonstrated that the capability of NS-SF to regulate both metabolic targets of NS and SF might be the basis of NS-SF to produce a cooperative effect greater than their individual effects that enhance the anti-MI efficacy and provided valuable information for the clinical application of Notoginseng-Safflower pair.