Study of metabolic pathway of Radix glycyrrhiza in decreasing liver toxicity of Tripterygium wilfordii / 药学学报

ABSTRACT

In this study, rats were used to evaluate the effect of Radix glycyrrhiza on reducing liver toxicity of Tripterygium wilfordii. Metabonomics techniques were used to analyze the changes of small molecular metabolites and the metabolic pathways involved in the beneficial process. Different groups of rats were given for the extractions from Tripterygium wilfordii and Tripterygium wilfordii together with Radix glycyrrhiza. The general state, pathological changes of liver tissue, biochemical indexes of liver function and the changes of inflammatory factors in rats were observed. The results showed that the liver tissue injury of Tripterygium wilfordii group was significant, and the injury was reduced by Radix glycyrrhiza. Biochemical indexes and inflammatory factors also suggested that Tripterygium wilfordii together with Radix glycyrrhizaeffectively decreased the liver toxicity. HPLC-MS/MS-IT-TOF was used to characterize the difference of serum metabolism in rats. Multivariate statistical analysis was used to screen 15 potential biomarkers, such as fatty acid, glycerol ester, glycerol phosphate, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine. It mainly involved in 7 metabolic pathways, such as glycerol phospholipid metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, alpha linoleic acid metabolism, and glycosyl phosphatidylinositol terminal biosynthesis. The results showed that the Tripterygium wilfordii compatibility of Radix glycyrrhizaeffectively decreased the liver toxicity induced by Tripterygium wilfordii. Phospholipid metabolism may be the key metabolic pathway of Tripterygium wilfordii hepatotoxicity and the target of Radix glycyrrhiza. This study provides a reference for the control of liver toxicity of Tripterygium wilfordii.