Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi University, No. 92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan, China.
Food Funct. 2018 Sep 19;9(9):4814-4821. doi: 10.1039/c8fo00740c.
Licorice, an edible and officinal plant material, has attracted considerable attention for its wide range of pharmacological activities. Our previous study showed that licorice can ameliorate cognitive damage and improve oxidative stress and apoptosis in aging rats induced by d-galactose (d-gal). In this study, in order to further explore the changes of the metabolic profile during the aging process and the antiaging mechanism of licorice, the 1H NMR-based metabolomics approach was used to analyze serum and urine samples and identify a potential biomarker in d-gal induced aging rats. The results revealed that the taurine metabolic pathway was significantly correlated with the ageing process in d-gal induced rats. Furthermore, the taurine contents were significantly decreased in both the serum and urine samples of aging rats compared with the controls. At the same time, the levels of cysteine dioxygenase type I (CDO1), cysteine sulfinic acid decarboxylase (CSAD) and glutamate decarboxylase type I (GAD1), which are the key enzymes affecting the synthesis reactions, were decreased in aging rats compared with the controls. After licorice administration, the levels of taurine, CDO1 and CSAD were all significantly increased. These findings firstly demonstrated that the regulation of the taurine metabolic pathway is involved in the anti-aging effect of licorice in d-gal induced aging rats.
甘草是一种可食用和药用的植物材料，因其广泛的药理活性而引起了相当大的关注。我们之前的研究表明，甘草可以改善衰老大鼠因半乳糖（d-gal）诱导的认知损伤，并改善氧化应激和细胞凋亡。在这项研究中，为了进一步探讨衰老过程中代谢谱的变化和甘草的抗衰老机制，我们采用基于 1H NMR 的代谢组学方法分析血清和尿液样本，并鉴定出 d-gal 诱导的衰老大鼠中的潜在生物标志物。结果表明，牛磺酸代谢途径与 d-gal 诱导的大鼠衰老过程显著相关。此外，与对照组相比，衰老大鼠的血清和尿液样本中的牛磺酸含量均显著降低。同时，与对照组相比，衰老大鼠中影响合成反应的关键酶胱氨酸双加氧酶 I（CDO1）、半胱氨酸亚磺酸脱羧酶（CSAD）和谷氨酸脱羧酶 I（GAD1）的水平降低。甘草给药后，牛磺酸、CDO1 和 CSAD 的水平均显著升高。这些发现首次表明，牛磺酸代谢途径的调节参与了甘草在 d-gal 诱导的衰老大鼠中的抗衰老作用。
