A target integration strategy for analyzing multidimensional chemical and metabolic substance groups of Ding-Zhi-Xiao-Wan prescription by using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

It is both challenging and meaningful for identifying the in vivo metabolites of the complex prescription owning to more complex chemical constituents and better therapeutic effect than those of the single medicine. In this paper, a target integration strategy combined with tandem mass spectrometry technology was developed for identification of metabolites from monomer composition of representative standard to Ding-Zhi-Xiao-Wan prescription (DZXW). The representative standards of each type in DZXW were utilized fully to explore the rule of mass fragmentation and the metabolism in vitro. These study were then extended to the single medicine and finally to the DZXW prescription. In addition, the order of metabolic research followed the metabolic order of oral drug in body, namely from in vitro, to intestine tract, to liver, to blood, and ultimately to target organs. As a result, a total of 150 prototypes and 51 metabolites of DZXW were effectively detected and identified in vivo. This result laid a material foundation for the better application of DZXW in treating Alzheimer's disease. More importantly, this analysis strategy provided a deep insight for the drug metabolism of traditional Chinese medicine.