Comparison of toxic reaction of Tripterygium wilfordii multiglycoside in normal and adjuvant arthritic rats

Aim of the study

Tripterygium wilfordii multiglycoside (GTW), an authorized Chinese patent drug, is used for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other immune disease. This study was to determine whether GTW induced different toxic reactions in adjuvant arthritis rats (AA rats) compared to those in normal rats.

Materials and methods

To prepare arthritic rat model, male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were immunized by injecting complete Freund's Adjuvant into right hind footpad. And then, GTW was given to rats intragastrically at dosage of 7 or 105 mg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ from day 15 to day 28 after immunization. Routine clinical parameters and histopathologic changes of liver, kidney and testis were examined. Metabolic profiling in serum of groups was analyzed by LC-MS. A principal component analysis (PCA) and partial-least-squares discriminate analysis (PLS-DA) were carried out combined with mass spectrometry (MS) data set. All the quantitative data were performed by two-way ANOVA analysis following Student's t-test.

Results and conclusions

Treatment with GTW at both doses could diminish the right and left hind paws swelling. There was slight lipoid degeneration in hepatic tissue of normal rats treated by high dose of GTW, but there were not distinctly pathological changes in hepatic tissue of AA rats treated by GTW. Compared normal rats administered with GTW, no statistically significant difference in the serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), creatinine (CRE), and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels were observed. However, the serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) level was significant decreased in AA rats under exposure GTW compared with normal rats in the same conditions (p < 0.05), which indicated that GTW could offer a different liver toxic reaction in normal and AA rats. The metabolic analysis showed that a clear separation of PCA and PLS-DA score spot in normal rats, but not separation was seen in AA rats perturbed with low dosage GTW. The result indicated low dosage GTW might arouse a general toxic in normal rats but not in AA rats. The biomarker analysis showed that the level of lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs) was down-regulated, but the level of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and chenodexycholic acid (CDCA) was up-regulated in AA rats compared with normal rats under exposure GTW. According to pathway analysis of metabolic markers, we conceived that LPC, UDCA and CDCA were the critical intermediates of choline and fatty acid metabolism. And the lipid metabolism was a correlative outcome of GTW induced toxicity in the liver in physiological condition animals. Taken together, GTW could induce different toxic reactions between normal and AA rats, and the lipid metabolism might be part of the mechanism for the hepatic lipidosis or the other liver injury.     

Toxicological effects of cinnabar in rats by NMR-based metabolic profiling of urine and serum

Cinnabar, an important traditional Chinese mineral medicine, has been widely used as a Chinese patent medicine ingredient for sedative therapy. However, the pharmaceutical and toxicological effects of cinnabar, especially in the whole organism, were subjected to few investigations. In this study, an NMR-based metabolomics approach has been applied to investigate the toxicological effects of cinnabar after intragastrical administration (dosed at 0.5, 2 and 5 g/kg body weight) on male Wistar rats. Liver and kidney histopathology examinations and serum clinical chemistry analyses were also performed. The 1H NMR spectra were analyzed using multivariate pattern recognition techniques to show the time- and dose-dependent biochemical variations induced by cinnabar. The metabolic signature of urinalysis from cinnabar-treated animals exhibited an increase in the levels of creatinine, acetate, acetoacetate, taurine, hippurate and phenylacetylglycine, together with a decrease in the levels of trimethyl-N-oxide, dimethylglycine and Kreb's cycle intermediates (citrate, 2-oxoglutarate and succinate). The metabolomics analyses of serum showed elevated concentrations of ketone bodies (3-d-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate), branched-chain amino acids (valine, leucine and isoleucine), choline and creatine as well as decreased glucose, lipids and lipoproteins from cinnabar-treated animals. These findings indicated cinnabar induced disturbance in energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism and gut microflora environment as well as slight injury in liver and kidney, which might indirectly result from cinnabar induced oxidative stress. This work illustrated the high reliability of NMR-based metabolomic approach on the study of the biochemical effects induced by traditional Chinese medicine.     

基于UPLC-Triple TOF-MS/MS技术分析何首乌代谢物积累的动态变化

目的分析不同采收时间何首乌Polygonum multiflorum代谢产物积累的动态变化。方法采用超高效液相色谱-串联四极杆飞行时间高分辨质谱(UPLC-Triple TOF-MS/MS)技术对不同采收时间何首乌15批样品进行测定,通过多级串联质谱分析,对其质谱数据进行峰匹配、峰对齐、滤噪处理等进行特征峰提取;采用主成分分析(PCA)和偏最小二乘法-判别分析(PLS-DA)进行数据处理;通过一级质谱精确质荷比和二级质谱碎片信息,结合软件数据库搜索及相关文献进行成分鉴别。结果不同采收时间何首乌样品间的化学组成得到明显区分;初步筛选出不同采收时间何首乌样品间25种差异显著的化学成分并鉴定出24个成分,其中共有9种差异化学成分呈现不同的变化规律。结论为揭示不同采收时间何首乌中代谢物积累动态规律及确定其药材合理采收期提供基础资料。     

A metabolomic approach to lung cancer

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world, but no good clinical markers that can be used to diagnose the disease at an early stage and predict its prognosis have been found. Therefore, the discovery of novel clinical markers is required. In this study, metabolomic analysis of lung cancer patients was performed using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Serum samples from 29 healthy volunteers and 33 lung cancer patients with adenocarcinoma (n = 12), squamous cell carcinoma (n = 11), or small cell carcinoma (n = 10) ranging from stage I to stage IV disease and lung tissue samples from 7 lung cancer patients including the tumor tissue and its surrounding normal tissue were used. A total of 58 metabolites (57 individual metabolites) were detected in serum, and 71 metabolites were detected in the lung tissue. The levels of 23 of the 58 serum metabolites were significantly changed in all lung cancer patients compared with healthy volunteers, and the levels of 48 of the 71 metabolites were significantly changed in the tumor tissue compared with the non-tumor tissue. Partial least squares discriminant analysis, which is a form of multiple classification analysis, was performed using the serum sample data, and metabolites that had characteristic alterations in each histological subtype and disease stage were determined. Our results demonstrate that changes in metabolite pattern are useful for assessing the clinical characteristics of lung cancer. Our results will hopefully lead to the establishment of novel diagnostic tools.     

The potential of metabolic fingerprinting as a tool for the modernisation of TCM preparations

A vast majority Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) are traditionally administered as individually prepared water decoctions (tang) which are rather complicated in practice and their dry extracts show technological problems that hamper straight production of more convenient application forms. Modernised extraction procedures may overcome these difficulties but there is lack of clinical evidence supporting their therapeutic equivalence to traditional decoctions and their quality can often not solely be attributed to the single marker compounds that are usually used for chemical extract optimisation. As demonstrated by the example of the rather simple traditional TCM formula Danggui Buxue Tang, both the chemical composition and the biological activity of extracts resulting from traditional water decoction are influenced by details of the extraction procedure and especially involve pharmacokinetic synergism based on co-extraction. Hence, a more detailed knowledge about the traditional extracts' chemical profiles and their impact on biological activity is desirable in order to allow the development of modernised extracts that factually contain the whole range of compounds relevant for the efficacy of the traditional application. We propose that these compounds can be identified by metabolomics based on comprehensive fingerprint analysis of different extracts with known biological activity. TCM offers a huge variety of traditional products of the same botanical origin but with distinct therapeutic properties, like differentially processed drugs and special daodi qualities. Through this variety, TCM gives an ideal field for the application of metabolomic techniques aiming at the identification of active constituents.     

基于抗菌活性及病理指标评价子芩与枯芩对肺炎的药效学差异

目的比较子芩与枯芩(均为黄芩的根)体外抗菌活性及体内对肺炎大鼠的药效学差异。方法采用体外实验,以二倍微量稀释法测定子芩与枯芩对肺炎链球菌的最小抑菌浓度(MIC);体内实验以肺炎大鼠为模型,选择体温、肺脏指数、血常规检测以及大鼠肺部病理切片为评价指标评价子芩与枯芩对肺炎大鼠作用的药效学差异;采用偏最小二乘-判别分析(PLS-DA)法,对子芩和枯芩的抗菌活性及病理指标进行分析。结果子芩对肺炎链球菌的MIC为0.5 g/mL,枯芩的MIC为0.25 g/mL;子芩和枯芩均能显著降低肺炎大鼠的体温、肺脏指数、全血中白细胞数、中性粒细胞数和淋巴细胞数;PLS-DA分析显示子芩与枯芩的体外抗菌活性及体内抗肺炎活性具有显著差异。结论子芩与枯芩对肺炎均具有一定的治疗作用,两者的作用强度有明显差异,枯芩作用优于子芩。     

代谢组学数据处理方法——主成分分析

代谢组学在生命科学领域得到了越来越广泛的应用并展现出良好的前景。代谢组学分析产生的含有大量变量的数据难以用常规方法进行分析,如何正确分析和解释代谢组学的数据是研究的关键。本文主要介绍了在代谢组学数据分析中占主导地位的主成分分析基本方法,旨在加强代谢组学数据分析的基础知识并规范数据分析的方法。     

Geographical discrimination of red garlic (Allium sativum L.) using fast and non-invasive Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transformed Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

Four varieties of red garlic (Allium sativum L.) cultivated in different Italian territories, Sulmona (Abruzzo), Proceno and Castelliri (Lazio), and Nubia (Sicily), were analysed by Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transformed Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. ATR-FTIR spectra of bulbils and bulbil tunics were separately acquired and processed by Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) with the aim of classifying the garlic samples on the basis of their geographical origin. Finally, two multi-block strategies (based on Sequential and Orthogonalized Partial Least Squares and Sequential and Orthogonalized Covariance Selection, coupled with Fisher’s Linear Discriminant Analysis) have been applied in order to test whether a joint analysis of data could lead to higher prediction rates. Eventually, the best results were achieved by the multi-block approach based on SO-PLS, which allows obtaining a total classification rate of 95 % (corresponding to one misclassified sample over 20) in external validation.     

基于电子舌的白及及其近似饮片的快速辨识研究＊

目的 探讨电子舌方法用于白及及其近似饮片快速辨识的可行性。方法 收集45批白及饮片及其近似品天麻饮片30批、玉竹饮片30批、黄花白及饮片29批，分别进行药典与地方标准辨识（M₁法）、HPLC指纹图谱辨识（M₂法），并结合原始采购信息获取最终饮片种类的标杆信息（Y），再采集电子舌味觉感官数据（X）并利用化学计量学方法分别建立主成分分析-判别分析（PCA-DA）、偏最小二乘-判别分析（PLS-DA）的45批白及饮片与剩余89批饮片的二分类辨识模型和45批白及饮片、30批天麻饮片、30批玉竹饮片、29批黄花白及饮片的四分类辨识模型（Y=F（X），M₃法）。结果 经留一法交互验证，基于PCA-DA、PLS-DA二分类辨识模型的正判率分别为98.51%、100.00%，基于PCA-DA、PLS-DA四分类辨识模型的正判率分别为100.00%（无未分类样本）、100.00%（有4个未分类样本），模型判别良好，结合正判率与模型未分类样本数两项指标，最终选择二分类辨识以PLS-DA为最终辨识模型、四分类辨识以PCA-DA为最终辨识模型，两种模型正判率均为最高，且均未出现未分类样本。结论 电子舌可快速准确辨识白及及其近似饮片，为未来研发智能化中药饮片快速辨识设备提供了思路。     

A metabonomic evaluation of the monocrotaline-induced sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS) in rats

The main curative treatment of colorectal cancer remains the surgery. However, when metastases are suspected, surgery is followed by a preventive chemotherapy using oxaliplatin which, unfortunately, may cause liver sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS). Such hepatic damage is barely detected during or after chemotherapy due to a lack of effective diagnostic procedures, but liver biopsy. The primary objective of the present study was to identify potential early diagnosis biomarkers of SOS using a metabonomic approach. SOS was induced in rats by monocrotaline, a prototypical toxic substance. ¹H NMR spectroscopy analysis of urine samples collected from rats treated with monocrotaline showed significant metabolic changes as compared to controls. During a first phase, cellular protective mechanisms such as an increased synthesis of GSH (reduced taurine) and the recruitment of cell osmolytes in the liver (betaine) were seen. In the second phase, the disturbance of the urea cycle (increased ornithine and urea reduction) leading to the depletion of NO, the alteration in the GSH synthesis (increased creatine and GSH precursors (glutamate, dimethylglycine and sarcosine)), and the liver necrosis (decrease taurine and increase creatine) all indicate the development of SOS.