ABSTRACT
Liver， as a critical organ of metabolism and detoxification， can be damaged by viral infection， drug abuse， and heavy drinking. Liver diseases pose a serious threat to people's health and life in China.At present， drug therapy has been primarily adopted clinically in the treatment of the liver injury.In-depth investigation of the mechanism of liver-protective drugs is of great significance to the prevention and treatment of clinical liver diseases.In recent years， with the development of the medical industry in China， an increasing number of studies have focused on the treatment of liver injury with Chinese medicine.Compared with western medicine， Chinese medicine is advantageous in few side effects and overall regulation， which plays a pivotal role in liver protection.However， its underlying mechanism in liver protection still needs to be further studied due to its complex compositions and diverse targets.Metabolomics， a new approach to studying the metabolic pathway of biological systems， provides integral and systematic views in the investigation of liver protection with Chinese medicine. By virtue of metabolomics， the mechanism of Chinese medicine in multi-target and multi-pathway liver protection can be analyzed comprehensively， and the corresponding biomarkers can also be screened out. The authors analyzed the studies of the treatment of chemical liver injury models induced by carbon tetrachloride （CCl4）， dimethylnitrosamine （DMN）， α-naphthyl isothiocyanate （ANIT）， and alcohol by Chinese medicinal compounds， single herbal medicines， and monomers of Chinese medicine based on metabolomics， and summarized the biomarkers and related metabolic pathways of Chinese medicine in the intervention of each type of liver injury， aiming at providing a reference for the further research and clinical application in the treatment of different types of liver injuries by Chinese medicine.
ABSTRACT
With the continuous development of Chinese medicine, traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) has been widely used in the treatment of diseases and health care. At the same time, the toxic and side effects of TCM have been gradually concerned. The liver, as an important place for drug metabolism, is a major target organ for drug toxicity. Clinical reports on liver injury caused by TCM are common, and the problem of liver toxicity of TCM has become an important reason to limit the internationalization of TCM. Metabono-mics is a newly booming subject to study the metabolic pathway of biological system. It shows integrity and systematicness in the study of hepatotoxicity of TCM, which provides a new technical method for finding the early biomarkers of liver injury of TCM and exploring the mechanism of hepatotoxicity of TCM. In this paper, the methods of metabonomics in the study of hepatotoxicity of TCM, as well as the research progress of hepatotoxicity monomer, extract and attenuation of hepatotoxic TCM based on metabonomics were reviewed in order to provide reference for the further study of hepatotoxicity of TCM.
Subject(s)
Humans , Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury , Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions , Drugs, Chinese Herbal , Medicine, Chinese Traditional , MetabolomicsABSTRACT
Objective: To evaluate the hepatotoxicity caused by water extract with alcohol precipitating of Toosendan Fructus (TF) and Toosendan Fructus + Corydalis Rhizoma (TF + CR) based on metabolic profiling of fatty acids in mice serum. Methods: A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method was applied for simultaneous quantification of 15 fatty acids, including both non-esterified and esterified fatty acids, in the serum of control, TF-treated, and TF + CR-treated mice. Meanwhile, the change of fatty acid metabolic profile in liver injured mice was analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Results: The result of PCA showed that the metabolic profile of serum fatty acids in TF-treated mice significantly deviated from the normal level, and CR with hepatoprotective effect could obviously reverse the deviation. More importantly, the result of PLS-DA illustrated that palmitoleic acid, vaccenic acid, and arachidonic acid had important contribution on the hepatotoxicity induced by TF. Therefore, the three fatty acids were identified as potential biomarkers. Conclusion: Hepatotoxicity caused by TF has a good correlation with the metabolic profiling of fatty acid. The project can provide foundation for further investigation on the evaluation and mechanism of TF-induced hepatotoxicity.
ABSTRACT
Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae is a traditional Chinese medicine with hepatotoxicity, but the metabolic profile of fatty acids has not been identified in the rats with liver injury. In this project, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method was applied to simultaneous quantification of 16 non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and esterified fatty acids (EFA) in the serum of control, ethanol extraction of Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae (ethanol extraction, ET) and diosbulbin B (DB)-treated rats. Meanwhile, the change of fatty acid metabolic profile of liver injured rats was analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The results of NEFA concentration indicated that the serum concen-trations of palmitic acid (C16:0), stearic acid (C18:0), palmitoleic acid (C16:1n7), oleic acid (C18:1n9), vaccenic acid (C18:1n7), linoleic acid (C18:2n6), linolenic acid (C18:3n3), eicosatrienoic acid (C20:3n6), arachidonic acid (C20:4n6) and docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6n3) in DB-treated rats decreased significantly, while that of C18:2n6 and C20:3n6 obviously increased and that of C20:4n6 and C22:6n3 noticeably dropped in ET-treated rats when compared with control. Furthermore, the results of EFA concentration illus-trated that the serum concentrations of C16:0, C18:0, C20:4n6, C22:6n3 and eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5n3) in two toxic groups were remarkably decreased when compared with control. The fatty acid meta-bolic profiles of the two toxic groups exhibited significant difference from the normal levels, and the degree of deviation of ET group was higher than that of DB group. More importantly, the results of PLS-DA showed that C20:4n6 and C22:6n3 were important indicators of the hepatotoxicity induced by ET and DB, and the serum concentrations of the two fatty acids had good correlation with the levels of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and total bilirubin using Pearson's correlation analysis and canonical correlation analysis (CCA). Therefore, C20:4n6 and C22:6n3 were identified as potential biomarkers of ET and DB-induced liver injury. The project can provide a foundation for furture investigation of molecular mechanism of hepato-toxicity caused by Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae.