Abstract
Coptis chinensis Franch has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for treating infectious and inflammatory diseases for over two thousand years. Berberine (BN), an isoquinoline alkaloid, is the main component of Coptis chinensis. The pharmacological basis for its therapeutic effects, which include hepatoprotective effects on liver injuries, has been studied intensively, yet the therapy of liver injuries and underlying mechanism remain unclear. We investigated the detoxification mechanism of Coptis chinensis and berberine using metabolomics of urine and serum in the present study. After the treatment with Coptis chinensis and berberine, compared with the cinnabar group, Coptis chinensis and berberine can regulate the concentration of the endogenous metabolites. PLS-DA score plots demonstrated that the urine and serum metabolic profiles in rats of the Coptis chinensis and berberine groups were similar those of the control group, yet remarkably apart from the cinnabar group. The mechanism may be related to the endogenous metabolites including energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism and metabolism of intestinal flora in rats. Meanwhile, liver and kidney histopathology examinations and serum clinical chemistry analysis verified the experimental results of metabonomics.
Highlights
Metals have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for a long time
The clinical biochemical results showed the parameters in the serum samples from the rats treated with Coptis chinensis + cinnabar and berberine + cinnabar were different from those of the cinnabar group on day 10 of continuous administration (Table 1)
In this work work NMR metabonomics technologies were applied to elucidate the detoxification and mechanism metabonomics were applied to elucidate thekidney detoxification and mechanism of of Coptis chinensis and technologies its main component berberine on liver and toxicity caused by cinnabar
Summary
Metals (minerals) have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for a long time. According to the Pharmacopoeia of China (2015), ten kinds of minerals are listed, including cinnabar (HgS) and realgar (As4 S4 ). Cinnabar (96% as HgS) has long been used for its sedative and hypnotic effects in TCM prescriptions [1,2], such as Zhusha Anshen Wan (ZSASW) [3], An-Gong-Niu-Huang Wan [4], etc. Hg content in ZSASW is about 11–13%, i.e., 110 mg Hg/g, which is 110,000 times higher than the European Drug and Food Standards (1 μg Hg/g) [6]. Consumption of food and drugs can cause cinnabar and other minerals to enter the body, and in some cases can cause liver and kidney injuries [3]
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