Indication of nerve growth factor binding components from herbal extracts by HerboChip: a platform for drug screening on a chip.

Pinky Sum Chi Lee,Gallant Kar Lun Chan,Laura Minglu Zhang,Huangquan Lin,Tina Tingxia Dong,Artemis Lu Yan,Kelly Yin Ching Lam,Karl Wah Keung Tsim

doi:10.1186/s13020-016-0107-8

Pinky Sum Chi Lee, Gallant Kar Lun Chan + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13020-016-0107-8

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Abstract

BackgroundHerboChip is an array of different fractions deriving from herbal extracts. This study aimed to identify effective components from Chinese medicine (CM) that interact with nerve growth factor (NGF) as a target using HerboChip.MethodsFifty types of CM that are traditionally used as remedies for emotion imbalance were selected and extracted with 50 % ethanol. Biotinylated-NGF was hybridized with over 300 chips coated with different HPLC-separated fractions from CM extracts and straptavidin-Cy5 was used to identify the NGF-bound fractions.ResultsOver 300 chips were screened within a week, and 17 positive hits were identified. The interaction of the identified herbal extracts with NGF was confirmed in cultured PC12 cells. Co-application of NGF and herbal extract interfered with NGF-induced expression of neurofilaments, including NF68 and NF200 in cell cultures. Western blot analysis comparing the intensity of phosphorylated cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) over total CREB showed NGF-induced CREB phosphorylation was modulated by the identified herbal extracts. Five CM herbs showed activating activities on the NGF response and nine CM herbs showed inhibiting activities.ConclusionThe current result supported the applicability of HerboChip for screening NGF binding components from herbal extracts.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13020-016-0107-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

IntroductionThis study aimed to identify effective components from Chinese medicine (CM) that interact with nerve growth factor (NGF) as a target using HerboChip
HerboChip is an array of different fractions deriving from herbal extracts
The Chinese medicine (CM) extracts that gave positive hits were further analyzed in cultured PC12 cells

Summary

Introduction

This study aimed to identify effective components from Chinese medicine (CM) that interact with nerve growth factor (NGF) as a target using HerboChip. Many of the active ingredients of CMs are still not fully identified. Traditional methods to isolate active ingredients are time-consuming and have a limited success rate [4]. We aimed to identify active compounds from CMs for drug development against diseases by using a high-throughput analytic platform, HerboChip (Kunming, Yunnan, China) [5]. The initial amount of CM required for traditional screening methods is large. The HerboChip platform requires small amounts of CMs, saving resources. HerboChip requires only small amounts of CM extracts for HPLC fractionation and chip dotting [6]. The HerboChip screening method employs small volumes of reagents, and takes several hours for hybridization and signal detection [6]

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