Abstract
In the clinical practice of traditional Chinese medicine, toxic heat and blood stasis syndrome (THBSS) is a common syndrome observed in various critical diseases. Paeoniae Radix Rubra (PRR) has known therapeutic effects on THBSS. However, its pharmacodynamic mechanisms and effective substances in the treatment of THBSS still need further elucidation. Our previous study indicated that THBSS had three stages of progression, and the abnormal biochemical indices of each stage were different. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate the pharmacodynamic mechanisms and effective substances of PRR for the treatment of THBSS with a stage-oriented strategy. Specifically, research was performed separately in two stable stages of THBSS: the excessive heat and little blood stasis (EHLBS) and blood stasis (BS) stages. THBSS model rats, at different time periods after syndrome initiation (first 5 h for EHLBS and 24 h later for BS), were used to conduct the two-stage investigation. Targeted metabonomics analysis was performed to elucidate the pharmacodynamic mechanisms of PRR in the treatment of EHLBS or BS. Based on the relationship between the individual differences in blood drug concentrations and pharmacodynamic effects, partial least squares regression analysis was employed to screen for the effective substances from the original constituents and metabolites of PRR. We found that PRR could upregulate primary bile acid biosynthesis, glycerophospholipid metabolism, ether lipid metabolism, and five amino acid metabolic pathways (e.g., arginine and proline metabolism) to treat EHLBS. Meanwhile, PRR alleviated BS by upregulating primary bile acid biosynthesis and downregulating glycerophospholipid metabolism. But PRR had no obvious effects on ether lipid metabolism and amino acid metabolism in this stage. In total, 17 and 9 potential effective substances were found in the EHLBS and BS stages, respectively, among which there were only five common compounds between the two stages. To our knowledge, sixteen compounds were regarded as potential effective substances of PRR for the first time. Therefore, the pharmacodynamic mechanisms and effective substances of PRR in the treatment of EHLBS and BS were partly different. Overall, this stage-oriented strategy provides a new way to study the pharmacodynamic mechanisms and effective substances of traditional Chinese drugs.
Highlights
Traditional Chinese drugs (TCDs) have been used in China for thousands of years and have recently received global attention
We found that in the excessive heat and little blood stasis (EHLBS) stage, the biochemical indexes of heat syndrome were significantly abnormal and the biochemical indexes of blood stasis syndrome were slightly abnormal in toxic heat and blood stasis syndrome (THBSS) model rats
Through using the stage-oriented strategy, the pharmacodynamic mechanisms and effective substances of Paeoniae Radix Rubra (PRR) in the treatment of EHLBS and BS were elucidated for the first time
Summary
Traditional Chinese drugs (TCDs) have been used in China for thousands of years and have recently received global attention. It is important to select suitable strategies for TCD development to meet the requirements of modern medicine (Li et al, 2008; Zhang B. et al, 2019). Elucidation of the pharmacodynamic mechanisms and the effective substances of TCDs is an important aspect of modern TCD research. In the past few decades, various strategies based on multiple perspectives have been utilized, including chinmedomics (Zhang A.-H. et al, 2019), systems pharmacology J. et al, 2019), and metabonomics (Wang et al, 2017). Since the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the essential basis of TCD applications, how to carry out modern TCD research under the guidance of TCM basic theory is still a critical issue
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