A novel strategy for screening bioavailable quality markers of traditional Chinese medicine by integrating intestinal absorption and network pharmacology: Application to Wu Ji Bai Feng Pill

Abstract

BackgroundMajor components are often used as marker compounds for quality control of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). However, these compounds may not necessarily bioavailable and active in vivo, thereby, failing to control the “quality”. PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a novel strategy integrating absorption and activity deduced from network pharmacology to identify more reasonable markers for quality control of TCM formulas using Wu Ji Bai Feng Pill (WJBFP) as an example. Study DesignHuman Caucasian colon adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cell transport studies and a bioavailability-enhanced network pharmacological approach were integrated to identify better phytochemical markers for quality control. MethodsThe absorption of multiple components in WJBFP was evaluated by a Caco-2 cell culture model. Nine databases were used to identify potential targets in the network pharmacology analysis. Cytoscape 3.7.2 was employed for the network data integration, visualization, and centrality analysis. Molecular docking was carried out to investigate the binding affinity of the identified markers to their candidate targets. ResultsThe apparent permeability coefficient (Papp) and efflux ratio (ER) of 66 compounds were determined. Five hundred and two putative targets and 187 primary dysmenorrhea (PD) related targets were identified. Twenty-two candidate targets interacting with 20 potential active compounds were screened with the putative PD related targets intersection network using Degree Centrality (DC) ranking. By integrating absorption, 16 candidate targets interacting with 8 potential active compounds were identified. Besides, 53 compounds hitting candidate targets were divided into two classes according to their DC values. Then each of the two classes of DC was stratified into two groups based on the Papp for a total of four classes. Finally, five compounds belonging to Class 1 with higher DC and higher Papp, formononetin, ferulic acid, isoliquiritigenin, neocryptotanshinone and senkyunolide A, were identified as potential bioavailable phytochemical markers for the quality control of WJBFP against PD. Furthermore, molecular docking analysis validated the interplay between candidate targets and marker ingredients. ConclusionA novel strategy combining intestinal absorption with network pharmacology analysis was successfully established to identify bioavailable and bioactive markers for quality control of WJBFP against PD.