Xiangcai Meng

Metabolomics Coupled with Proteomics Advancing Drug Discovery toward More Agile Development of Targeted Combination Therapies

To enhance the therapeutic efficacy and reduce the adverse effects of traditional Chinese medicine, practitioners often prescribe combinations of plant species and/or minerals, called formulae. Unfortunately, the working mechanisms of most of these compounds are difficult to determine and thus remain unknown. In an attempt to address the benefits of formulae based on current biomedical approaches, we analyzed the components of Yinchenhao Tang, a classical formula that has been shown to be clinically effective for treating hepatic injury syndrome. The three principal components of Yinchenhao Tang are Artemisia annua L., Gardenia jasminoids Ellis, and Rheum Palmatum L., whose major active ingredients are 6,7-dimethylesculetin (D), geniposide (G), and rhein (R), respectively. To determine the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of this formula, we conducted a systematic analysis of the therapeutic effects of the DGR compound using immunohistochemistry, biochemistry, metabolomics, and proteomics. Here, we report that the DGR combination exerts a more robust therapeutic effect than any one or two of the three individual compounds by hitting multiple targets in a rat model of hepatic injury. Thus, DGR synergistically causes intensified dynamic changes in metabolic biomarkers, regulates molecular networks through target proteins, has a synergistic/additive effect, and activates both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways.

Rapid and global detection and characterization of aconitum alkaloids in Yin Chen Si Ni Tang, a traditional Chinese medical formula, by ultra performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry and automated data analysis.

An improved method employing Metabolynx XS with mass defect filter (MDF), a post-acquisition data processing software, was developed and applied for global detection of aconitum alkaloids in Yin Chen Si Ni Tang, a traditional Chinese medical formula (TCMF). The full-scan LC-MS/MS data sets with extra mass were acquired using ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS) with the MS(E) mode in a single injection. To remove the interferences, Metabolynx XS was optimized to extract the ions of aconitum alkaloids located at the lower abundance. As a result, 62 ions were assigned rapidly to aconitum alkaloids and identified tentatively by comparing the accurate mass and fragments information with that of the authentic standards or by mass spectrometry analysis and retrieving the reference literatures. Compared with the previous studies on Fuzi-containing TCMF, the report detected more aconitum alkaloids, and the analysis process was accelerated by automated data processing. It is concluded that the screening capability of Metabolynx XS with MDF, together with the utilization of MS(E) in structural elucidation, can facilitate a rapid and comprehensive searching and effective structural characterization of aconitum alkaloids in TCMF.

Characterization of the multiple components of Acanthopanax Senticosus stem by ultra high performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry.

Acanthopanax Senticosus Harms. has been used widely in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of chronic bronchitis, neurasthenia, hypertension and ischemic heart disease. However, the in vivo constituents of the stem of Acanthopanax Senticosus remain unknown. In this paper, ultra high performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry and the MarkerLynx(TM) software combined with multiple data processing approach were used to study the constituents in vitro and in vivo. The aqueous extract from the Acanthopanax Senticosus stem and the compositions in rat serum after intragastric administration were completely analyzed. Consequently, 115 compounds in the aqueous extract from Acanthopanax Senticosus stem and 41 compounds absorbed into blood were characterized. Of the 115 compounds in vitro, 54 were reported for first time, including sinapyl alcohol, sinapyl alcohol diglucoside, and 1-O-sinapoyl-β-D-glucose. In the 41 compounds in vivo, 7 were prototype components and 34 were metabolites which were from 21 components of aqueous extract from Acanthopanax Senticosus stem, and the metabolic pathways of the metabolites were elucidated for first time. The results narrowed the range of screening the active components and provided a basis for the study of action mechanism and pharmacology.

Chemical discrimination of cortex Phellodendri amurensis and cortex Phellodendri chinensis by multivariate analysis approach

Background: As herbal medicines have an important position in health care systems worldwide, their current assessment, and quality control are a major bottleneck. Cortex Phellodendri chinensis (CPC) and Cortex Phellodendri amurensis (CPA) are widely used in China, however, how to identify species of CPA and CPC has become urgent. Materials and Methods: In this study, multivariate analysis approach was performed to the investigation of chemical discrimination of CPA and CPC. Results: Principal component analysis showed that two herbs could be separated clearly. The chemical markers such as berberine, palmatine, phellodendrine, magnoflorine, obacunone, and obaculactone were identified through the orthogonal partial least squared discriminant analysis, and were identified tentatively by the accurate mass of quadruple-time-of-flight mass spectrometry. A total of 29 components can be used as the chemical markers for discrimination of CPA and CPC. Of them, phellodenrine is significantly higher in CPC than that of CPA, whereas obacunone and obaculactone are significantly higher in CPA than that of CPC. Conclusion: The present study proves that multivariate analysis approach based chemical analysis greatly contributes to the investigation of CPA and CPC, and showed that the identified chemical markers as a whole should be used to discriminate the two herbal medicines, and simultaneously the results also provided chemical information for their quality assessment.

Application of ultra-performance liquid chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry for the rapid analysis of constituents and metabolites from the extracts of Acanthopanax senticosus Harms leaf

Acanthopanax senticosus (Rupr and Maxim) Harms (AS), a member of Araliaceae family, is a typical folk medicinal herb, which is widely distributed in the Northeastern part of China. Due to lack of this resource caused by the extensive use of its root, this work studied the chemical constituents of leaves of this plant with the purpose of looking for an alternative resource. In this work, a fast and optimized ultra-performance liquid chromatography method with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) has been developed for the analysis of constituents in leaves extracts. A total of 131 compounds were identified or tentatively characterized including triterpenoid saponins, phenols, flavonoids, lignans, coumarins, polysaccharides, and other compounds based on their fragmentation behaviors. Besides, a total of 21 metabolites were identified in serum in rats after oral administration, among which 12 prototypes and 9 metabolites through the metabolic pathways of reduction, methylation, sulfate conjugation, sulfoxide to thioether and deglycosylation. The coupling of UPLC-QTOF-MS led to the in-depth characterization of the leaves extracts of AS both in vitro and in vivo on the basis of retention time, mass accuracy, and tandem MS/MS spectra. It concluded that this analytical tool was very valuable in the study of complex compounds in medicinal herb.

Dissection of Biological Property of Chinese Acupuncture Point Zusanli Based on Long-Term Treatment via Modulating Multiple Metabolic Pathways.

Acupuncture has a history of over 3000 years and is a traditional Chinese medical therapy that uses hair-thin metal needles to puncture the skin at specific points on the body to promote wellbeing, while its molecular mechanism and ideal biological pathways are still not clear. High-throughput metabolomics is the global assessment of endogenous metabolites within a biologic system and can potentially provide a more accurate snap shot of the actual physiological state. We hypothesize that acupuncture-treated human would produce unique characterization of metabolic phenotypes. In this study, UPLC/ESI-HDMS coupled with pattern recognition methods and system analysis were carried out to investigate the mechanism and metabolite biomarkers for acupuncture treatment at “Zusanli” acupoint (ST-36) as a case study. The top 5 canonical pathways including alpha-linolenic acid metabolism, d-glutamine and d-glutamate metabolism, citrate cycle, alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism, and vitamin B6 metabolism pathways were acutely perturbed, and 53 differential metabolites were identified by chemical profiling and may be useful to clarify the physiological basis and mechanism of ST-36. More importantly, network construction has led to the integration of metabolites associated with the multiple perturbation pathways. Urine metabolic profiling might be a promising method to investigate the molecular mechanism of acupuncture.

Deciphering the biological effects of acupuncture treatment modulating multiple metabolism pathways

Acupuncture is an alternative therapy that is widely used to treat various diseases. However, detailed biological interpretation of the acupuncture stimulations is limited. We here used metabolomics and proteomics technology, thereby identifying the serum small molecular metabolites into the effect and mechanism pathways of standardized acupuncture treatments at ‘Zusanli’ acupoint which was the most often used acupoint in previous reports. Comprehensive overview of serum metabolic profiles during acupuncture stimulation was investigated. Thirty-four differential metabolites were identified in serum metabolome and associated with ten metabolism pathways. Importantly, we have found that high impact glycerophospholipid metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, ether lipid metabolism were acutely perturbed by acupuncture stimulation. As such, these alterations may be useful to clarify the biological mechanism of acupuncture stimulation. A series of differentially expressed proteins were identified and such effects of acupuncture stimulation were found to play a role in transport, enzymatic activity, signaling pathway or receptor interaction. Pathway analysis further revealed that most of these proteins were found to play a pivotal role in the regulation of multiple metabolism pathways. It demonstrated that the metabolomics coupled with proteomics as a powerful approach for potential applications in understanding the biological effects of acupuncture stimulation.

High‐throughput ultra high performance liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry approach for the rapid analysis and characterization of multiple constituents of the fruit of Acanthopanax senticosus (Rupr. et Maxim.) Harms

Acanthopanax senticosus (Rupr. et Maxim.) Harms, a traditional Chinese medicine, has been widely used to improve the function of skeleton, heart, spleen and kidney. This fruit is rich in nutrients, but the chemical constituents of Acanthopanax senticosus fruit are still unclear. A rapid method based on ultra high performance liquid chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry was developed for the compound analysis of Acanthopanax senticosus fruit in vitro and in vivo. In this study, the Acanthopanax senticosus fruit could significantly increase the weight of immune organs, promote the proliferation of lymphatic T cells, regulate the lymphatic B cell function, and decrease the ability of natural killer cells. A total of 104 compounds of Acanthopanax senticosus fruit including lignans, flavones, triterpenoidsaponins, phenolic acids, and other constituents were identified. Among them, seven chemical compounds were reported for the first time in the Acanthopanax senticosus fruit. Compared with the serum sample of blank and dosed samples, 24 prototype compositions were characterized. The results of our experiment could be helpful to understand the complex compounds of Acanthopanax senticosus fruit in vitro and in vivo for further pharmacological activity studies.

UPLC-MS based metabolic profiling of the phenotypes of Acanthopanax senticosus reveals the changes in active metabolites distinguishing the diversities of the plant grown in northeast area of China

ABSTRACT Acanthopanax senticosus (Rupr.et Maxim.) Harms. ( AS ) is a medicinal plant which mainly distributes in Northeastern area of China, due to the widely utilization in clinical and pharmaceutical industry, the wild resource of the plant is limited, the cultivation of the plant is in needed currently. Therefore it is of importance to select a medicinal priority for cultivating from two different sexual type of AS. In the present study, UPLC-MS technology-based metabolic profiles was used to discriminate phenotypes. By processing the metabolomic data with principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and orthogonal projection to latent structures (OPLS) analysis, eleven secondary metabolites were found to be responsible for classing the two varieties of Acanthopanax senticosus , they might be taken as potential biological markers of sexual type. These marker metabolites include flavone, coumarin, terpenes and organic acids, which are the main active constituents related to the therapeutic effects of Acanthopanax senticosus . Among these valuable secondary metabolites, flavone, anthraquinone and organic acids are highly expressed in short capillament Acanthopanax senticosus , while coumarin and terpenoid are highly expressed in the long capillament variety. As a result, by monitoring these highly expressed metabolites and through selective cultivation, an Acanthopanax senticosus with higher amounts of medicinally relevant constituents could be created.

Pharmacokinetics of cimifugin in rat plasma after oral administration of the extract of Saposhnikovia divaricatae root. Determination of cimifugin by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with solid phase extraction.

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with the solid phase extraction method was developed for determining cimifugin (a coumarin derivative; one of Saposhnikovia divaricataes constituents) in rat plasma after oral administration of Saposhnikovia divaricatae extract (SDE), and the pharmacokinetics of cimifugin either in SDE or as a single compound was investigated. The HPLC analysis was performed on a commercially available column (4.6 mm x 200 mm, 5 pm) with the isocratic elution of solvent A (Methanol) and solvent B (Water) (A:B=60:40) and the detection wavelength was set at 250 nm. The calibration curve was linear over the range of 0.100-10.040 microg/mL. The limit of detection was 30 ng/mL. At the rat plasma concentrations of 0.402, 4.016, 10.040 microg/mL, the intra-day precision was 6.21%, 3.98%, and 2.23%; the inter-day precision was 7.59%, 4.26%, and 2.09%, respectively. The absolute recovery was 76.58%, 76.61%, and 77.67%, respectively. When the dosage of SDE was equal to the pure compound calculated by the amount of cimifugin, it was found to have two maximum peaks while the pure compound only showed one peak in the plasma concentration-time curve. The pharmacokinetic characteristics of SDE showed the superiority of the extract and the properties of traditional Chinese medicine.