Comparison of Serum Metabolite Changes of Radiated Mice Administered with Panax quinquefolium from Different Cultivation Regions Using UPLC-Q/TOF-MS Based Metabolomic Approach.

Zhenxian Qin,Xiaofang Chen,Dengqun Liao,Xian'En Li,Chan Jia

doi:10.3390/molecules23051014

Zhenxian Qin, Xiaofang Chen + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23051014

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Abstract

Chemometric analysis of bioactive compounds revealed that American ginsengs (AGs) from different cultivation regions of China had a difference in quality, which indicates their possible pharmacological difference. A UPLC-Q/TOF-MS-based untargeted metabolomic approach was used to uncover serum metabolite changes in radiated mice pre-administered with AG root decoctions from seven cultivation regions and to further assess their quality difference. OPLS-DA revealed that 51 metabolites (ESI−) and 110 (ESI+) were differentially expressed in sera between the control and the radiated model mice. Heatmap analysis further revealed that AG could not reverse most of these radiation-altered metabolites, which indicates dietary supplement of AG before cobalt radiation had the weak potential to mediate serum metabolites that were altered by the sub-lethal high dose radiation. In addition, 83 (ESI−) and 244 (ESI+) AG altered metabolites were detected in radiated mice under radiation exposure. Both OPLS-DA on serum metabolomes and heatmap analysis on discriminant metabolites showed that AGs from different cultivation regions differentially influenced metabolic alterations in radiated mice, which indicates AGs from different cultivation regions showed the pharmacological difference in modulation of metabolite changes. AGs from Shandong, Shanxi, and Beijing provinces had more similar pharmacological effects than AGs from USA, Canada, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. Finally, 28 important potential biomarkers were annotated and assigned onto three metabolic pathways including lipid, amino acid, and energy metabolisms.

Highlights

American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L., Xi yangshen in Chinese) is a perennial medicinal plant of the genus Panax in Araliaceae family
We aimed to investigate the in vitro pharmacological effect of American ginseng on radiation via an untargeted serum metabolomic analysis and to reveal the quality difference of American ginseng from different cultivation regions
Ex vivo experiments revealed that American ginseng had the radioprotective effects in reducing radiation-induced DNA damage through the increase of the total oxidant and the reduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) [40,41], our serum metabolomic results showed that pre-treatment of American ginseng could not reverse most of the radiated-altered serum metabolites in mice with only a few metabolites ameliorated

Summary

Introduction

American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L., Xi yangshen in Chinese) is a perennial medicinal plant of the genus Panax in Araliaceae family. In order to reveal the quality difference of AGs from different cultivation regions of China and to see whether our domestic AGs, after near 40 years of domestication, had a close quality to cultivated AGs of USA and Canada, Chinese researchers/scientists evaluated AG quality of different geographical origins based on the contents of saponins, which are the major bioactive compounds [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21] These results showed that AGs from the specific cultivation regions of China had a similar total saponin content and varied in content of some ginsenosides.

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