Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, China.
College of Pharmacy, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China.
Biomed Chromatogr. 2024 Dec;38(12):e6026. doi: 10.1002/bmc.6026. Epub 2024 Oct 23.
Codonopsis pilosula (Franch.) Nannf. is a traditional herb for treating immunosuppression. C. pilosula boiling powder (CP-BP) contains particles of a small size made from C. pilosula decoction pieces (CP-DP). It is still unclear how changes in particle size during the decoction process affect the dissolution of various chemical components in C. pilosula. Herein, an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-Exactive Orbitrap mass spectrometry technique was established to characterize the components of CP-BP and CP-DP decoctions. The contents of the components were evaluated based on the relative peak area, extract yield, and alcohol solubility rate. A total of 71 compounds were finally identified, and their content in the CP-BP decoction was generally higher than that in the CP-DP decoction. Alkaloids had the highest average content, whereas terpenoids were the most affected by changes in particle size. In addition, immunosuppression was used as model to investigate whether these changes have practical significance. The results of network pharmacology suggested that the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt pathway may be a potential pathway of C. pilosula for treating immunosuppression. The results of molecular docking indicated that compounds with large content variations have good docking affinity with key targets (epidermal growth factor receptor [EGFR], prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 [PTGS2], and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma [PPARG]). These results provide an important reference for further development and use of C. pilosula.
党参是一种传统的免疫抑制治疗草药。党参煮粉（CP-BP）由党参饮片煮制而成的微小颗粒组成。目前尚不清楚煎煮过程中颗粒大小的变化如何影响党参中各种化学成分的溶解。在此，建立了一种超高效液相色谱-四级杆-静电轨道阱质谱联用技术，用于表征 CP-BP 和 CP-DP 煎液的成分。根据相对峰面积、提取产率和醇溶性率评价成分含量。最终鉴定出 71 种化合物，CP-BP 煎液中的含量普遍高于 CP-DP 煎液。生物碱的平均含量最高，而萜类化合物受颗粒大小变化的影响最大。此外，以免疫抑制作用为模型，研究了这些变化是否具有实际意义。网络药理学的研究结果表明，磷酸肌醇 3-激酶（PI3K）-Akt 通路可能是党参治疗免疫抑制的潜在途径。分子对接的结果表明，含量变化较大的化合物与关键靶点（表皮生长因子受体[EGFR]、前列腺素内过氧化物合酶 2[PTGS2]和过氧化物酶体增殖物激活受体γ[PPARG]）具有良好的对接亲和力。这些结果为党参的进一步开发和利用提供了重要参考。
