Engineering & Technology Research Center for Chines Materia Medical Quality of Guangdong Province, School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
School of Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2020 Jul 15;186:113297. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2020.113297. Epub 2020 Apr 8.
Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) have been widely used in Asian countries for thousands of years due to their supreme quality and good clinical efficacy. However, the increasing demand for TCMs in recent decades warrants effective quality control methodology to avoid clinical problems. Therefore, comprehensive quality evaluation systems should be established for ensuring TCM's quality, in terms of chemical components, as well as bioactivity for identifying quality markers in TCM and developing suitable analytical methods for quality control. In this study, we selected Sophora flavescens (S. flavescens) as the research object and developed a novel integrated strategy combining metabolomics and network pharmacology to explore the quality markers. Firstly, we determined the targeted metabolomic profiles of seventy-four batches of S. flavescens (aged from 1 to 6 years) by UHPLC/QE-MS. Six potential markers were successfully screened, quantified and reverse-verified as the most influential effective compounds by UHPLC/QE-MS and multivariate statistical analysis. Secondly, the network of "components-targets-pathways" was constructed, and the pharmacological activities of six potential markers were predicted. Finally, we determined the anti-tumor activity of six flavonoids (kurarinone, norkurarinone, kuraridin, kushenol N, trifolirhizin, and genistein) as the quality markers for Sophora flavescens, evaluated their pharmacokinetic profiles and reviewed their existing pharmacological researches. Thus, integrated metabolomics and network pharmacology technology were applied for the effective discovery of quality markers of Chinese material medica.
传统中药（TCM）因其卓越的品质和良好的临床疗效，在亚洲国家已被广泛应用了数千年。然而，近几十年来对 TCM 的需求不断增加，这就需要有效的质量控制方法来避免临床问题。因此，应建立全面的质量评价体系，以确保 TCM 的品质，包括化学成分和生物活性，从而确定 TCM 的质量标志物，并开发合适的分析方法进行质量控制。在这项研究中，我们选择苦参（S. flavescens）作为研究对象，并结合代谢组学和网络药理学开发了一种新的综合策略来探索质量标志物。首先，我们通过 UHPLC/QE-MS 测定了 74 批苦参（年龄从 1 到 6 年）的靶向代谢组学图谱。通过 UHPLC/QE-MS 和多变量统计分析，成功筛选、定量和反向验证了 6 个潜在的标志物，作为最具影响力的有效化合物。其次，构建了“成分-靶点-通路”网络，并预测了 6 个潜在标志物的药理活性。最后，我们测定了 6 种黄酮类化合物（苦参酮、氧化苦参碱、苦参啶、苦参醇 N、三叶豆紫檀苷和染料木黄酮）作为苦参质量标志物的抗肿瘤活性，评估了它们的药代动力学特征，并回顾了它们现有的药理研究。因此，我们将代谢组学和网络药理学技术综合应用于中药质量标志物的有效发现。
