Comprehensive profiling and characterization of the absorbed components and metabolites in mice serum and tissues following oral administration of Qing-Fei-Pai-Du decoction by UHPLC-Q-Exactive-Orbitrap HRMS / 中国天然药物

Qing-Fei-Pai-Du decoction (QFPDD) is a Chinese medicine compound formula recommended for combating corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China. The latest clinical study showed that early treatment with QFPDD was associated with favorable outcomes for patient recovery, viral shedding, hospital stay, and course of the disease. However, the effective constituents of QFPDD remain unclear. In this study, an UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS based method was developed to identify the chemical constituents in QFPDD and the absorbed prototypes as well as the metabolites in mice serum and tissues following oral administration of QFPDD. A total of 405 chemicals, including 40 kinds of alkaloids, 162 kinds of flavonoids, 44 kinds of organic acids, 71 kinds of triterpene saponins and 88 kinds of other compounds in the water extract of QFPDD were tentatively identified via comparison with the retention times and MS/MS spectra of the standards or refereed by literature. With the help of the standards and in vitro metabolites, 195 chemical components (including 104 prototypes and 91 metabolites) were identified in mice serum after oral administration of QFPDD. In addition, 165, 177, 112, 120, 44, 53 constituents were identified in the lung, liver, heart, kidney, brain, and spleen of QFPDD-treated mice, respectively. These findings provided key information and guidance for further investigation on the pharmacologically active substances and clinical applications of QFPDD.

Study on mechanisms of anti-Alzheimer's disease action of absorbed components of Gardeniae Fructus based on network pharmacology / 中国中药杂志

Gardeniae Fructus has the traditional effects of promoting intelligence and inducing resuscitation, but its mechanism is unclear. In this study, the relationship between Gardeniae Fructus's traditional effect of promoting intelligence and inducing resuscitation and anti-Alzheimer's disease effect was taken as the starting point to investigate the anti-Alzheimer's disease mechanism of the major absorbed components in Gardeniae Fructus by the network pharmacology method. The network pharmacology research model of "absorbed composition-target-pathway-disease" was adopted. In this study, the active components screening and target prediction technology were used to determine the active components and targets of Gardeniae Fructus in treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The enrichment pathway and biological process of Gardeniae Fructus were studied by using the bioinformatics annotation database(DAVID), and the results of molecular docking validation network analysis were used to elaborate the mechanism of Gardeniae Fructus in treatment of Alzheimer's disease. It was found that 35 absorbed components of Gardeniae Fructus not only regulated 48 targets such as cholines-terase(BCHE) and carbonic anhydrase 2(CA2), but also affected 11 biological processes(e.g. transcription factor activity, nuclear receptor activity, steroid hormone receptor activity, amide binding and peptide binding) and 7 metabolic pathways(MAPK signaling pathway, Alzheimer disease and estrogen signaling pathway, etc.). Molecular docking results showed that more than 60% of the active components could be well docked with key targets, and the relevant literature also showed that the active components could inhibit the MAPK1 expression of key targets, indicating a high reliability of results. These results indicated that Gardeniae Fructus may play its anti-Alzheimer's disease action via a "multi-ingredients-multi-targets and multi-pathways" mode, providing a scientific basis for further drug research and development.

UPLC/Q-TOF-MS analysis of iridoid glycosides and metabolites in rat plasma after oral administration of Paederia scandens extracts / 中国天然药物

A rapid and validated UPLC-MS method was developed for investigating the absorbed components of Paederia scandens (Lour.) Merrill (P. scandensy) in rat plasma. The bioactive constituents in plasma samples from rats administrated orally with P. scandens extract were analyzed by Ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS). Four prototype compounds were identified in rat serum as potential bioactive components of P. scandens by comparing their retention times and mass spectrometry data or by mass spectrometry analysis and retrieving the reference literatures. Glucuronidation after deglycosylation was the major metabolic pathway for the iridoid glycosides in P. scandens. These results showed that the methods had high sensitivity and resolution and were suitable for identifying the bioactive constituents in plasma after oral administration of P. scandens. providing helpful chemical information for further pharmacological and mechanistic researched on the P. scandens.