ABSTRACT
Depression is a common emotional disorder that seriously affects people's life and health all over the world. The pathogenesis of depression is complex, and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for antidepressants has a good therapeutic effect because of its multi-component, multi-pathway, and multi-target action mode. At present, the anti-depressive mechanism of TCM has not been fully clarified, but it is clear that depression is closely related to metabolic health. Therefore, in order to further explore the anti-depressive mechanism of TCM, this paper proposes research strategies on the anti-depressive mechanism of TCM based on functional metabolomics from the perspective of metabolism, the potential biomarkers of depression are analyzed with the help of multi-omics combined analysis technology, and the functional molecules of TCM for antidepressant are studied. Molecular biology techniques are used to accurately capture the molecular interactions between biomarkers of depression and functional compounds, which identify effective drug targets and further elucidate the biochemical functions and related mechanisms involved in depression metabolic disorders. This paper systematically reviews the research strategies and applications of functional metabolomics in the anti-depressive mechanisms of TCM, expounds on the core value of functional metabolomics, and summarizes the current research status and hot issues of TCM for antidepressants in recent years, providing new methods and new ideas for the study of mechanisms of TCM with the help of functional metabolomics.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a malignant pulmonary vascular disease lacking efficacy therapeutics. Therefore, it urgently needs to develop safe and effective drugs for PAH treatment. Osthole derived from Cnidium monnieri (L.) Cusson (Shechuangzi) or Angelica pubescens Maxim (Duhuo) has the capacity to alleviate PAH by decreasing pulmonary arterial pressure and alleviating pulmonary vascular remodeling in rats, which is a candi?date drug for the prevention of PAH, but the underlying modulatory mechanism is still unclear. Our study aims at investi?gating the metabolic modulatory mechanism of osthole against PAH employing functional metabolomics strategy. METH?ODS PAH model rats were successfully established with MCT, following osthole administration, then functional metabo?lomics based on untargeted metabolomics assay, targeted lipidomics analysis, qRT-PCR, Western blotting and ELISA were performed to investigate the modulatory mechanism of osthole against pulmonary arterial pressure and pulmonary vascular remodeling in PAH. RESULTS Untargeted metabolomics results found that sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) was the differential metabolites characterized PAH and reversed by osthole treatment. S1P is a crucial sphingolipid metabolite catalyzed by sphingosine kinases1 (Sphk1) and functions as promoting PASMCs proliferation contributing to pulmonary vascular remodeling and pulmonary arterial pressure increase. We revealed that osthole reversed high level of S1P by modulating metabolic enzyme Sphk1 via inactivating microRNA-21-PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway to decrease pulmonary arterial pressure in rats with PAH. Then, targeted phospholipid metabolomics results uncovered that decadienyl-L-carnitine (C10:2) was the differential metabolite characterized PAH and corrected by osthole treatment in rat with PAH. C10:2 is the intermediate metabolite of fatty acid oxidation (FAO), and C10:2 accumulation indicated mitochondrial dysfunction and FAO increase. CONCLUSION Osthole could block lipid metabolic reprogramming through functional modulating the expression of fatty acid translocase, fatty acid synthase, phospholipase A2, carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A to inhibit C10:2, thus to improve mitochondrial dysfunction and inhibit utilizing lipid to biosyn?thesize necessary essence for pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) proliferation. Moreover, we delineated that C10:2 and metabolic reprogramming enzymes were modulated by miRNA-22-3p which was involved in PASMCs proliferation and pulmonary vascular remodeling. Therefore, osthole inhibited miRNA-22-3p mediated lipid metabolic reprogramming to ameliorate pulmonary vascular remodeling.