ABSTRACT
A serumal metabonomics method based on UPLC/Q-TOF-MS was established to investigate the mechanism of Schisandra chinensis to treating diabetic nephropathy. The diabetic model was established by feeding with high-fat and high-sucrose chow and streptozotocin intraperitoneal injection. After intragastric administration for 12 weeks, the content of protein and creatinine in rat urine was detected. The results showed that Schisandra chinensis could reduce the content of protein in urine of diabetic rat ( p<0 . 05 ) and ameliorate the condition of diabetic nephropathy. The serum metabolic profiling was analysed by using UPLC/Q-TOF-MS and partial least squares-discriminated analysis ( PLS-DA) was used for data analysis. The score of PLS-DA showed that there was significant difference among the metabolic profile of control group, model group and Schisandra chinensis group ( WWZ ) . Potential biomarkers of Schisandra chinensis ameliorating diabetic nephropathy were selected by orthogonal partial least squares ( OPLS)-DA model. According to the results of OPLS-DA, the MS/MS data of each compound which provided greater contribution to separation of each group were searched from the HMDB databases. Seven endogenous metabolites were identified as potential biomarkers such as xanthurenic acid, palmitic amide, oleamide, uric acid, 5-hydroxyhexanoic acid, p-cresol sulfate, and p-cresol glucuronide. The results revealed that Schisandra chinensis mainly affected the pathways of tryptophan metabolism, gut microbiota metabolism, purine metabolism and fatty acid metabolism to treating type 2 diabetes mellitus. The gut microbiota metabolism and purine metabolism was an important pathway on diabetic nephropathy.