Hu Pan, Yan Xin, Zeng Yijia, Jiang Zherui, Liu Juan, Feng Wu-Wen
Chengdu Institute of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Chengdu, China, 610020.
Chengdu Institute of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Chengdu, China, 610020; State Key Laboratory of Southwestern Chinese Medicine Resources, School of Pharmacy, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 611137, China.
J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2023 Oct 25;235:115585. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2023.115585. Epub 2023 Jul 21.
Botanic polysaccharides can be metabolized by gut microbiota into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) to exert extensive bioactivities, yet targeted analysis of the effect of botanic polysaccharides on other gut microbial metabolites is scarcely seen. Tryptophan metabolites such as indole and indole derivatives play import roles in health and disease development. Using polysaccharides from Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz. (AMP) in treating ulcerative colitis as the example, we checked the effects of AMP on tryptophan metabolites. After examination of pharmacological effects of AMP, we established an ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method to simultaneously determinate the levels of 30 tryptophan metabolites and used the method to determine the levels of these metabolites in feces and plasma. The detection results showed that 12 metabolites in feces can be detected, and 17 metabolites can be detected in plasma samples. In addition, we found out that total levels of aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligands were decreased in colitis model whereas AMP treatment can increase the levels of total ligands in both feces and plasma. The results indicated that the therapeutical effect of AMP on colitis was associated with modulation of fecal and host tryptophan metabolism. This study provides new insight into the molecular mechanisms of polysaccharides that the beneficial effects of polysaccharides can be achieved by modulating microbial tryptophan metabolism in addition to SCFAs.
植物多糖可被肠道微生物群代谢为短链脂肪酸（SCFAs），从而发挥广泛的生物活性，然而针对植物多糖对其他肠道微生物代谢产物影响的分析却鲜有报道。色氨酸代谢产物如吲哚和吲哚衍生物在健康和疾病发展中发挥着重要作用。以白术多糖（AMP）治疗溃疡性结肠炎为例，我们研究了AMP对色氨酸代谢产物的影响。在考察了AMP的药理作用后，我们建立了一种超高效液相色谱-质谱联用/质谱（UPLC-MS/MS）方法，用于同时测定30种色氨酸代谢产物的水平，并使用该方法测定粪便和血浆中这些代谢产物的水平。检测结果表明，粪便中可检测到12种代谢产物，血浆样本中可检测到17种代谢产物。此外，我们发现结肠炎模型中芳烃受体配体的总水平降低，而AMP治疗可增加粪便和血浆中总配体的水平。结果表明，AMP对结肠炎的治疗作用与粪便和宿主色氨酸代谢的调节有关。这项研究为多糖的分子机制提供了新的见解，即除了SCFAs外，多糖的有益作用还可通过调节微生物色氨酸代谢来实现。
