Prediction of anti-liver fibrosis effect of Piperis Longi Fructus based on network pharmacology / 中国中药杂志

Network pharmacology and liver fibrosis(LF) model in vitro were used to analyze the underly mechanism of anti-liver fibrosis effect that induced by Piperis Longi Fructus and its major active compounds. TCMSP and TCMIP were used to search for the chemical constituents of Piperis Longi Fructus, as well as the oral bioavailability(OB), drug-likeness(DL), intercellular permeability of intestinal epithelial cells(Caco-2) and Drug-likeness grading were set as limiting conditions. The related target genes of Piperis Longi Fructus were queried by TCMSP database, while related targets of LF were screened by GeneCards databases. Interaction network was constructed using Cytoscape 3.7.1. These above data were imported into STRING database for PPI network analysis. Enrichment of gene ontology(GO) and pathway analysis(KEGG) within Bioconductor database were utilized to note functions of related targets of Piperis Longi Fructus. Finally, the core targets and pathways were preliminarily verified by in vitro experiments. The effects of piperlongumine(PL), the major active component of Piperis Longi Fructus, on proliferation of rat liver stellate cells(HSC-T6) and expression of α smooth muscle actin(α-SMA) and collagen Ⅰ were investigated. The major factors TNF-α of tumor necrosis factor(TNF) pathway and NF-κB p65, IL-6 protein expressions of LF process were examined. A total of 12 active compounds such as PL were obtained by analyzing the bioavailability and drug-like properties, which inferred to 48 targets. The functional enrichment analysis of GO obtained 1 240 GO items, mainly involving in process of biology and molecular function. A total of 99 signaling pathways were enriched in the KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, including TNF signaling pathway, cGMP-PKG signaling pathway, calcium signaling pathways. CCK-8 assay showed that PL inhibited proliferation of HSC-T6 induced by transforming growth factor-β1(TGF-β1). Western blot analysis found that treated with PL suppressed the protein expressions of α-SMA, collagen Ⅰ, TNF-α and p65 in HSC-T6. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) showed that PL inhibited the expressions of TNF-α and IL-6 in the cluture supertant of HSC-T6 cells. In conclusion, PL could play an anti-liver fibrosis role by regulating TNF/NF-κB signaling pathway. This study provided the mechanism basis of anti-LF effects induced by Piperis Longi Fructus and its major active compounds, which might help for the further study of the mechanism and key targets of Piperis Longi Fructus.

Effect of different proportions of piper chinaroot and rhubarb on the dissolution rate of five effective components in rhubarb / 国际中医中药杂志

Objective@#To study the effect of different proportions of piper chinaroot and rheum palmatum on the dissolution rate of five effective components (aloe emodin, emodin acid, emodin, emodin, emodin methyl ether).@*Methods@#The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was used to analyz the contents of five effective components of rheum palmatum in the extracts of different combination of piper chinaroot and rheum palmatum. The tests were carried out by Thermo C18 (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm) by gradient elution with methanol and 0.1% phosphoric acid water solution as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1ml/min, the column temperature was 30 ℃ and the detection wavelength was 254 nm.@*Results@#The linear ranges of aloe emodin, emodin acid, emodin, emodin, emodin methyl ether were 0.018 5-0.741 8, 0.017 9-0.717 8, 0.015 9-0.635 5, 0.054 2-2.167 2, 0.016 2-0.646 4 μg, respectively. The average recoveries of aloe emodin, emodin acid, emodin, emodin, emodin methyl ether were 94.35%, 95.50%, 100.61%, 96.27%, 97.39%, and the RSDs were 1.81%, 1.99%, 2.84%, 2.71%, and 1.86%, respectively. Compared with rheum palmatumby single extract, the content of aloe emodin and emodin were increased by 5 proportions (3:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, 1:3), while the content of emodin and emodin methyl ether were decreased.@*Conclusions@#The optimal compatibility proportion of piper chinaroot and rheum palmatum is 1:1.