Search

This research aimed to study the effect of Uremic Clearance Granules on chronic kidney disease in SD rats by using the methods of microbial functional genomics combined with metabolomics, and to preliminarily explore its mechanism. The SD rat model of chronic kidney disease was established by the adenine-induced method. After the model was successfully induced, the animals were randomly divided into a negative control group, a Uremic Clearance Granule treatment group, and a normal control group, with 8 rats in each group. After 4 weeks of administration, animal feces and serum were collected, and 16S rDNA sequencing technology was used to analyze the abundance, diversity, and function prediction of intestinal microorganisms. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry(LC-MS) technology was used to perform high-throughput sequencing to detect animal serum metabolites. The MetPA database was used to screen out potential biomarkers of chronic kidney disease in rats and conduct the enrichment analysis of metabolic pathways. Spearman's method was used to analyze the correlation between the two omics. The results showed that Uremic Clearance Granules effectively improved the body weight loss and renal function-related biochemical and appearance indicators in rats with chronic kidney disease. The results of 16S rDNA sequencing showed that Uremic Clearance Granules regulated the diversity and composition of the intestinal flora in rats with chronic kidney disease. The changes in the intestinal flora affected functional metabolic pathways such as amino acid biosynthesis and metabolism, lipid metabolism, and carbohydrate metabolism. The results of LC-MS showed that as compared with the negative control group, 15 metabolites were reversed in the Uremic Clearance Granule treatment group, among which 11 potential marker metabolites were significantly up-regulated and 4 potential marker metabolites were significantly down-regulated. Five amino acid metabolic pathways were mainly involved, which were significantly correlated with changes in the intestinal flora. Therefore, Uremic Clearance Granules can improve the renal function of rats with chronic kidney disease, and the mechanism may be related to its effect on the amino acid metabolism pathway by regulating the intestinal flora.

The aim of this paper was to investigate the effect of ethanol extract of Phellinus igniarius in lowering uric acid and changing the gut microbiome in hyperuricemia rats. A total of 36 SD rats were randomly divided into normal control group, model control group, positive drug control group, and high-dose, middle-dose and low-dose P. igniarius ethanol extract groups, with 6 rats in each group. Hyperuricemia rats were established by D-fructose combined with oteracil potassium(OAPS). One week later, the positive control group was given allopurinol 50 mg·kg~(-1) intragastrically, and P. igniarius ethanol extract groups were treated with 30, 60 and 90 mg·kg~(-1) drugs for 14 consecutive days. Body weight, blood glucose and serum uric acid(SUA) were monitored every week. After the model rats were administered with the ethanol extracts of P. igniarius by gavage for two weeks, the activities of creatinine, BUN, xanthine oxidase(XOD) and adenosine deaminase(ADA) were detected. The right kidney was taken to analyze the histological and morphological changes and the degree of damage to main organs of the extract of P. igniarius. The 16 S rDNA gene sequence technique was used to analyze the guts microbiota composition in feces. The results indicated that ethanol extract of P. igniarius could significantly lower the SUA level(P<0.01), while inhibiting the activities of XOD and ADA(P<0.05, P<0.01). Histological examination showed that the allopurine group showed slight renal tubular dilation and inflammatory cell infiltration compared with the normal group, with no significant difference between the P. igniarius ethanol extract groups and the normal group. The 16 S sequencing results showed that the composition of gut microbiota has changed in each group. Therefore, ethanol extracts of P. igniarius may reduce the level of SUA in rats by inhibiting the activities of XOD and ADA, with a certain effect on the composition of gut microbiota.

The study explores the application of Tanreqing Injection into brain components in brain diseases. The components of Tanreqing Injection and its existing components in rat cerebrospinal fluid were qualitatively analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry(LC-MS). The possible mechanism of action of Tanreqing Injection into brain on brain diseases was predicted by network pharmacological theory. In this study, 17 brain-entry components of Tanreqing Injection were founded, and 222 core targets were obtained from network pharmacological results. The biological processes include 31 items such as negative regulation of apoptotic process, MAPK cascade, Ras protein signal transduction, and 22 items such as PI3 K-Akt signal transduction, MAPK signal transduction and neurotrophic factor signal transduction. Nine brain diseases including stroke, migraine and meningioma were screened out by predicting the effect of Tanreqing Injection on brain components, which provide ideas and directions for further study of a certain encephalopathy and lay a theoretical foundation for further revealing its molecular mechanism.

This paper aimed to explore the molecular mechanism of Xingnaojing injection and its scientific connotation of compatibility mechanism from a new perspective on bioinformatics and network biology. Based on the analysis function of intergrative pharmacology platform V1.0, the compatibility mechanism of this prescription was investigated by constructing the herbs-compounds-targets network. Seven hundreds and ninety-five targets from the prescription were screened out, then 302 hub nodes were included in drug targets-disease targets network. Enrichment analysis showed that it was related to MAPK cascade, negative/positive regulation of apoptotic process and other biological functions as well as PI3K/AKT, neurotrophin and other signal pathways. The target functions of different drugs were similar, complementing each other, and belonging to the common signaling pathway with asynergistic effect. Based on analysis of core components-key targets-main pathway network, among totally 25 core components and 29 key targets, musk had 15 and 25 respectively.SLC1A2, AR, PGR, CAT, NMDA receptors and other targets were associated with cerebral infarction. Musk, gardenia and borneol compatibility can play a bidirectional regulation of apoptosis; musk and gardenia showed synergistic effect on Ras signaling pathway, indicating that musk was the main ingredient of the injection and the other three drugs played the role of assistance. This study could not only provide the bioinformatics support in compatibility mechanism of Xingnaojing injection, but also provide theoretical support for its formula rationality., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

One new neolignan identified as 2, 3-( trans) -dihydro-2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl) -3-[(beta-D-glucopyranosyloxy) methyl]-7-methoxybenzofuran-5-propenoic acid (1) and five known steroidal glycosides namely torvoside A(2), torvoside C(3), torvoside H(4), solanolactoside A (5), (25S)-6alpha-hydroxy-5alpha-spirostan-3-one-6-0-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->3-beta3)-beta-D-D-quinovopyr-anoside] (6) were isolated from the fruits of Solanum torvum. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of 1D, 2D NMR and MS spectroscopic analysis.

A simple and reliable method of high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (HPLC-DAD) was developed to evaluate the quality of a traditional Chinese medicine Sophora flavescens through establishing chromatographic fingerprint and simultaneous determination of five flavonoids, including trifolirhizin, maackiain, kushenol I, kurarinone and sophoraflavanone G. The optimal conditions of separation and detection were achieved on an ULTIMATE XB-C18 column (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm) with a gradient of acetonitrile and water, detected at 295 nm. In the chromatographic fingerprint, 13 peaks were selected as the characteristic peaks to assess the similarities of different samples collected from different origins in China according to similarity evaluation for chromatographic fingerprint of traditional chinese medicine (2004AB) and principal component analysis (PCA) were used in data analysis. There were significant differences in the fingerprint chromatograms between S. flavescens and S. tonkinensis. Principal component analysis showed that kurarinone and sophoraflavanone G were the most important component. In quantitative analysis, the five components showed good regression (R > 0.999) with linear ranges, and their recoveries were in the range of 96.3% - 102.3%. This study indicated that the combination of quantitative and chromatographic fingerprint analysis can be readily utilized as a quality control method for S. flavescens and its related traditional Chinese medicinal preparations.

Objective: To study the growth of Glycyrrhiza uralensis under different planting density for providing theoretic evidence for reasonable planting density., Method: The field experiment was designed by single factor randomized block., Result: The plant height, root diameter, main root length and branches of main stem were all decreased with increasing planting density of G. uralensis. Meanwhile, dry matter accumulation on root, leaf, aerial part and rhizome were all decreased with increasing planting density., Conclusion: Two hundred and seventy thousand plants/hm2 was feasible planting density.