代谢组学在天然产物毒性评价和毒理学研究中的应用进展

为了尽可能避免毒性效应并安全使用天然产物,更全面的毒性认知已成为迫切需要。通常认为小分子代谢产物可以代表生物体的生理或病理状态,因此,基于代谢组学的毒理学研究既可以用于评价毒性,也可以鉴定天然产物的毒理学生物标志物,有助于指导临床用药并减少药物不良反应。近几十年来,代谢组学在中药单体成分、提取物和复方制剂诱导的肾毒性、肝毒性、心脏毒性和中枢神经系统的毒性评价中应用广泛。综述常用的代谢组学技术,包括样品制备、样品检测、数据处理和分析方法,以及基于代谢组学的天然产物毒理学研究等方面的进展,并对该研究的潜在问题进行探讨并对今后的发展方向进行展望。

Application progress on metabonomics in toxicity assessment and toxicologic studies of natural products

To avoid toxic effects as much as possible and to safely use natural products, a more comprehensive understanding of toxicity is urgently needed. We generally believe that small molecule metabolites can represent the physiological or pathological state of an organism, so metabolomics-based toxicology studies can be used to assess toxicity as well as to identify toxicological biomarkers of natural products, which helps to guide clinical medications and reduce adverse drug reactions. In recent decades, dozens of metabolomics studies have been conducted in the evaluation of nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, and toxicity of the central nervous system induced by monomer compounds, extracts, and combination preparations. This article reviews the commonly used metabolomics techniques, including sample preparation, sample testing, data processing and analysis, as well as toxicology studies of natural products based on metabolomics. Finally, the potential problems and further prospects of this kind of research are discussed.