高血压病中医分型的代谢组学研究

目的:将传统中医辨证方法同现代系统生物学理论相结合,探讨原发性高血压辨证分型与基于GC/MS的血清代谢组学的关系。方法:原发性高血压辨证分为肝火亢盛、痰湿雍盛及阴虚阳亢三型。应用GC/MS测定健康人及原发性高血压病人血清内源性代谢物,并用主成分分析(PCA)、偏最小乘方分析(PLS-DA)和马氏距离(MD)分析他们的代谢谱。结果:PCA和PLS-DA分析的结果表明:健康人与高血压病人血清代谢谱有明显差异,能够被区分开,但PCA和PLS-DA不能将中医高血压的三型完全分开。利用MD不仅可以清晰地区分上述三种类型的高血压,同时还显示高血压的发展过程。结论:基于GC/MS和模式识别的代谢组学在揭示传统中医理论本质上有着广泛的应用前景。

Metabolomics approach to the biochemical differentiation of Traditional Chinese Medicine syndrome types of hypertension

AIM: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been practiced in China for thousands of years, providing a unique theoretical and practical approach to the treatment of diseases. In TCM theory, the notions of the "whole" and the use of "system" rather than isolation are important concepts, which well fit to systems biology theory. In the present study, we try to discover whether GC/MS-based metabolomics approaches contribute to differentiate the TCM syndrome types of hypertension. METHODS: The three phenotypes of constitution in patients with essential hypertension, the hyperactivity of liver yang type, tan shi yong sheng type and yin xu yang kang type, were classified by TCM approach. Serum metabolomic profiles for healthy persons and hypertension patients were acquired using GC/MS global analysis. Principal components analysis (PCA), partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and Mahlanobis distance (MD) were applied to facilitate the metabolomics data differentiation and prediction. RESULTS: Using PCA and PLS-DA, it was capable of distinguishing normal blood pressure serum samples from those of the TCM syndrome types, while failed to discriminate the three TCM syndrome types of hypertension from each other. Further MD analysis contributed not only to a fine differentiation, but also to a clear exhibition of the progression, of the three syndrome types. CONCLUSION: This pilot study suggests that the metabolomics approach might be a powerful tool for exploring the scientific essence of the TCM theory.