Shi Xi, Long Fang, Wu Cheng-Ying, Zhou Jing, Shen Hong, Zhou Shan-Shan, Xu Jin-Di, Zhang Wei, Li Song-Lin
Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis, Affiliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.
Department of Metabolomics, Jiangsu Province Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.
Phytochem Anal. 2023 Jan;34(1):56-66. doi: 10.1002/pca.3179. Epub 2022 Oct 8.
Apocyni Veneti Folium (AVF) is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicinal herb for the treatment of hypertension. Chemical markers are crucial for the quality control of herbal medicines; however, the therapeutic components of AVF remain to be well elucidated.
This study was intended to integrate serum pharmacochemistry and network pharmacology to identify chemical markers of AVF and establish an efficacy-related quality control method of AVF.
Ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS) was applied to identify the absorbed AVF constituents in rat serum. Network pharmacology was further used to identify anti-hypertension-related chemical markers. Subsequently, a quantitative method was established using UPLC with diode array detection (DAD) and applied for quality evaluation of commercial AVF samples.
Thirteen prototype constituents were unequivocally or tentatively characterized in serum samples, among which quercetin, kaempferol, hyperoside, isoquercitrin, chlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, and neochlorogenic acid were identified as dominant chemicals related to anti-hypertensive efficacy. The quantitative data showed that the total contents of seven marker components even showed 2-fold variation among 14 batches of commercial AVF samples with RSD values ranging from 12.15% to 75.61%. Hierarchical cluster analysis and heatmap analysis showed that 14 batches of commercial AVF samples could be divided into three main groups.
The chemical markers obtained from this study could be applicable for efficacy-related quality control of AVF.
罗布麻叶是治疗高血压常用的传统中药。化学标志物对中药质量控制至关重要；然而，罗布麻叶的治疗成分仍有待深入阐明。
本研究旨在整合血清药物化学和网络药理学，以鉴定罗布麻叶的化学标志物，并建立与疗效相关的罗布麻叶质量控制方法。
采用超高效液相色谱四极杆飞行时间串联质谱（UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS）鉴定大鼠血清中吸收的罗布麻叶成分。进一步利用网络药理学鉴定抗高血压相关化学标志物。随后，建立了一种采用二极管阵列检测（DAD）的UPLC定量方法，并应用于市售罗布麻叶样品的质量评价。
在血清样品中明确或初步鉴定出13种原型成分，其中槲皮素、山奈酚、金丝桃苷、异槲皮苷、绿原酸、隐绿原酸和新绿原酸被鉴定为与抗高血压疗效相关的主要化学成分。定量数据显示，14批市售罗布麻叶样品中7种标志物成分的总含量甚至有2倍差异，相对标准偏差（RSD）值在12.15%至75.61%之间。层次聚类分析和热图分析表明，14批市售罗布麻叶样品可分为三大类。
本研究获得的化学标志物可用于罗布麻叶与疗效相关的质量控制。
