Ganweikang extract protects hepatocytes from oxidative injury by activating Nrf2/HO-1 and MAPKs pathways.

Ganweikang tablet (GWK) is a traditional Chinese prescription and has been clinically used in treating liver diseases for decades. Although GWK has been shown to exert potential therapeutic effect for hepatotoxicity protection, the underlying biological mechanisms are still not well clarified. In the present study, the compositional analysis of GWK was performed by HPLC analysis, and the hepato-protective effects of GWK were assessed in H2O2-stimulated acute oxidative injured HL-7702 hepatocytes in vitro. As a result, 7 components in GWK were quantified to be 0.06 ± 0.01% (calycosin), 0.46 ± 0.02% (calycosin-7-glucoside), 0.13 ± 0.01% (liquiritin), 0.17 ± 0.02% (glycyrrhizic acid), 0.45 ± 0.02% (forsythoside A), 0.07 ± 0.01% (5-O-methylvisammioside) and 0.45 ± 0.02% (forsythin), respectively. Furthermore, GWK (100, 200 and 400 µg/mL, 24 h) dose-dependently alleviated HL-7702 hepatocytes from H2O2 (200 µM, 2 h)-induced cell apoptosis by decreasing the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and malondialdehyde (MDA) level, as well as the cellular aminotransferases (ALT and AST) activities. GWK increased the expressions of HO-1, NQO1 and Nrf2, while suppressing the expression of KEAP1 in H2O2-stimulated HL-7702 cells. A specific Nrf2 inhibitor, ML385, was further employed to investigate the regulation of Nrf2 in HL-7702 cells stimulated by H2O2. In addition, the activation of MAPKs (JUN, ERK and p38) was simultaneously detected in H2O2-stimulated HL-7702 cells. In conclusion, GWK exerted potential therapeutic effect to protect hepatocytes from acute oxidative injury through activating the Nrf2/HO-1 and MAPKs pathways.

Mechanisms of Ganweikang Tablets against Chronic Hepatitis B: A Comprehensive Study of Network Analysis, Molecular Docking, and Chemical Profiling.

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the major viral infection problems worldwide in public health. The exclusive proprietary Chinese medicine Ganweikang (GWK) tablet has been marketed for years in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). However, the pharmacodynamic material basis and underlying mechanism of GWK are not completely clear. This study is aimed at investigating the pharmacological mechanism of the GWK tablet in the treatment of CHB. The chemical ingredient information was obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP), Traditional Chinese Medicines Integrated Database (TCMID), and Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry of CAS. Ingredients and disease-related targets were defined by a combination of differentially expressed genes from CHB transcriptome data and open-source databases. Target-pathway-target (TPT) network analysis, molecular docking, and chemical composition analysis were adopted to further verify the key targets and corresponding active ingredients of GWK. Eight herbs of GWK were correlated to 330 compounds with positive oral bioavailability, and 199 correlated targets were identified. The TPT network was constructed based on the 146 enriched targets by KEGG pathway analysis, significantly associated with 95 pathways. Twenty-five nonvolatile components and 25 volatile components in GWK were identified in UPLC-QTOF/MS and GC-MS chromatograms. The key active ingredients of GWK include ferulic acid, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, tormentic acid, 11-deoxyglycyrrhetic acid, dibenzoyl methane, anisaldehyde, wogonin, protocatechuic acid, psoralen, caffeate, dimethylcaffeic acid, vanillin, ß-amyrenyl acetate, formonentin, aristololactam IIIa, and 7-methoxy-2-methyl isoflavone, associated with targets CA2, NFKB1, RELA, AKT1, JUN, CA1, CA6, IKBKG, FOS, EP300, CREB1, STAT1, MMP9, CDK2, ABCB1, and ABCG2.

Comprehensive comparison on the anti-inflammation and GC-MS-based metabolomics discrimination between Bupleuri chinense DC. and B. scorzonerifolium Willd.

Bupleuri Radix (BR) is a traditional Chinese medicine and widely used for cold and fever, influenza, inflammation, hepatitis and menstrual diseases. Two authentic medicinal plants of Bupleuri chinense DC. (Beichaihu, BCH) and B. scorzonerifolium Willd. (Nanchiahu, NCH) are recommended by the current Chinese Pharmacopoeia for BR. In the present study, the comparative investigations on the anti-inflammatory effects and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolomics for the species discrimination of BCH and NCH were conducted and reported. The in vitro evaluations indicated that the supercritical fluid extracts (SFEs) (IC50 of 6.39 ± 0.52 and 1.32 ± 0.05 mg (herb)/mL for BCH and NCH) were determined to be more potent than those of the hydro-distillation extracts (HDEs) (IC50 of 203.90 ± 8.08 and 32.32 ± 2.27 mg (herb)/mL for BCH and NCH) against LPS-induced inflammation in RAW264.7 macrophages. The higher anti-inflammatory effects of NCH were associated to its different chemical compositions to the BCH as characterized by the GC-MS analysis. Furthermore, based on the metabolomics and deep chemometric approaches, a minimum combination containing 15 chemical markers was optimized from the identified components and successfully applied for the species discrimination of BCH and NCH. This study not only helps to comparative understand BCH and NCH both in phytochemistry and pharmacology, but also provides the potential chemical markers for improvement of methods for the quality control of BCH and NCH.

Anti-inflammatory/anti-oxidant properties and the UPLC-QTOF/MS-based metabolomics discrimination of three yellow camellia species.

The species of Camellia nitidissima Chi (CC) and C. euphlebia Merr. ex Sealy (CE) are two most important plant sources for commercialized herbal tea (Jinhuacha) worldwide. However, some other species of camellia genus are also sold as alternatives in market due to the great commercial value. In this study, the similarity and difference of CC and CE as well as C.insularis (CI) are comprehensively compared both in chemistry and pharmacology. Based on the ultraperformance liquid chromatography coupled with a hybrid quadrupole orthogonal time-of-flight mass spectrometer(UPLC-QTOF-MS) analysis, a sequential-optimization based new statistical model has been developed by combining the untargeted metabolomics and fingerprint analyses, and successfully applied for chemical pattern recognition and discrimination of three yellow camellias species. The results indicated that CC, CE and CI could be well discriminated with the optimized chemical combination including quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside (C2), okicamelliaside (C4), Kaempferol 7-O-rhamnoside (C6), Corymboside (C9), asiatic acid-glc-rha-xyl (C11) and 3'-methy-4'-glucoside-ellagic acid (C14). Moreover, the 30 % ethanolic extracts of yellow camellias species presented the optimal activities on anti-inflammation/anti-oxidation in LPS-stimulated Raw264.7 macrophages dose-dependently. The averaged 50 % inhibitory concentrations (IC50) on NO production were 754.68 ± 50.96, 1182.39 ± 22.10, 1527.83 ± 106.24 µg(herb)/mL, and ROS production were 311.70 ± 26.57, 332.64 ± 25.46, 917.60 ± 41.36 µg(herb)/mL for CC, CE and CI, respectively. The results indicated a certain similarity of CC and CE, as well as their significant difference from CI.