Yang Song-Hong, Zhu Jing, Wu Wen-Ting, Li Jun-Mao, Tong Heng-Li, Huang Yi, Gong Qian-Feng, Gong Fei-Peng, Zhong Ling-Yun
School of Pharmacy, Jiangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, China.
Jiangxi Provincial People's Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang Medical College, Nanchang, China.
Front Pharmacol. 2023 Aug 4;14:1236656. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1236656. eCollection 2023.
The unique pharmaceutical methods for the processing of botanical drugs according to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) affect clinical syndrome differentiation and treatment. The objective of this study was to comprehensively elucidate the principles and mechanisms of an herbal processing method by investigating the alterations in the metabolites of Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae (AMR) processed by Aurantii Fructus Immaturus (AFI) decoction and to determine how these changes enhance the efficacy of aqueous extracts in treating functional dyspepsia (FD). A qualitative analysis of AMR before and after processing was conducted using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS, and HPLC was employed for quantitative analysis. A predictive analysis was then conducted using a network analysis strategy to establish a botanical drug-metabolite-target-disease (BMTD) network and a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, and the predictions were validated using an FD rat model. A total of 127 metabolites were identified in the processed AMR (PAMR), and substantial changes were observed in 8 metabolites of PAMR after processing, as revealed by the quantitative analysis. The enhanced aqueous extracts of processed AMR (PAMR) demonstrate improved efficacy in treating FD, which indicates that this processing method enhances the anti-inflammatory properties and promotes gastric motility by modulating DRD2, SCF, and c-kit. However, this enhancement comes at the cost of attenuating the regulation of motilin (MTL), gastrin (GAS), acetylcholine (Ach), and acetylcholinesterase (AchE). Through this series of investigations, we aimed to unravel the factors influencing the efficacy of this herbal formulation in improving FD in clinical settings.
根据中医理论，中药材独特的炮制方法会影响临床辨证论治。本研究的目的是通过研究经枳实（AFI）水煎液炮制的白术（AMR）代谢产物的变化，全面阐明一种中药炮制方法的原理和机制，并确定这些变化如何增强水提取物治疗功能性消化不良（FD）的疗效。采用超高效液相色谱-四极杆-飞行时间串联质谱（UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS）对炮制前后的AMR进行定性分析，采用高效液相色谱（HPLC）进行定量分析。然后使用网络分析策略进行预测分析，建立中药-代谢产物-靶点-疾病（BMTD）网络和蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用（PPI）网络，并使用FD大鼠模型对预测结果进行验证。在炮制后的AMR（PAMR）中总共鉴定出127种代谢产物，定量分析显示，炮制后PAMR的8种代谢产物发生了显著变化。炮制后的AMR（PAMR）水提取物在治疗FD方面显示出更高的疗效，这表明这种炮制方法通过调节多巴胺受体D2（DRD2）、干细胞因子（SCF）和原癌基因c-kit增强了抗炎特性并促进了胃动力。然而，这种增强是以减弱对胃动素（MTL）、胃泌素（GAS）、乙酰胆碱（Ach）和乙酰胆碱酯酶（AchE）的调节为代价的。通过这一系列研究，我们旨在揭示影响这种中药配方在临床环境中改善FD疗效的因素。
