Non-Volatile metabolome of different cultivars of Prunus mume blossoms and screening of the antidepressant molecules targeting monoamine oxidase A

Abstract

Prunus mume is a traditional Chinese plant with high ornamental and medicinal values. Although there has been some research on the antidepressant effect of green calyx Mume Flos through animal tests, there is limited information on the potential antidepressant effects of different cultivars of P. mume and their relevance with intrinsic non-volatile metabolites. In this work, the non-volatile metabolites of P. mume blossom from seven cultivars were analyzed using UPLC-Q-TOF/MS, and their antidepressant activities were examined by targeting monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A). The cultivars included Gulihong (GLH), Yudie (YD), LvE (LE), Zhusha (ZS), Jiangmei (JM), Gongfen (GF) and Meirenmei (MRM). The untargeted analysis identified 148 compounds, including flavonoids, acylated sucroses, phenolic acids etc., out of 1120 compound ions. The Blireiana Prunus MRM displayed a significant difference in both metabolites and activity, compared to the other six true Prunus cultivars, with the lowest inhibitory effect on MAO-A. The correlation analysis between the spectrum and effect of the six true Prunus cultivars was conducted by partial least squares regression (PLSR) and grey correlation (GRA) and screened 45 common active compounds that are likely responsible for the antidepressant activity. A joint analysis with the 50 untargeted differential compounds resulted in 15 compounds finally, which are believed to contribute to the differences in activity between the six cultivars. All of them have a low binding energy with MAO-A in molecular docking. According to their regression coefficients, the plentiful polyacetyl coumaroylsucroses identified in blossom are believed to be the main effective substances for the inhibition activity of MAO-A instead of the flavonoids. The results also suggest that JM may be better than LE as a potential antidepressant herb. However, experiments are required for further validation.