Development of an on-line analytical platform to screen haptens in shuxuening injection based on high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with ion-trap multistage mass spectrometry and human serum albumin fluorescence detection.

Shuxuening injection (SXNI), one of the traditional Chinese medicine injections (TCMI), is widely used for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in the clinic. However, its allergic reactions have impeded the clinical applications of SXNI, such adverse reactions have not been well understood due to the lack of methods for detecting haptens. In this study, a high-performance liquid chromatography-diode-array detector-multi-stage mass spectrometry-human serum albumin-fluorescence detector (HPLC-DAD-MSn-HSA-FLD) system was established to identify and screen haptens for the first time. Flavones, flavonols and their glycosides in SXNI showed strong HSA binding ability in different degrees. Fifteen of these compounds were used to study the association of HSA binding ability and sensitizability using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and fluorescence techniques, furthermore, RBL-2H3 cell experiments were conducted to verify the results. It was found that ginkgolides showed no sensitizability, while flavones and flavonol aglycones showed stronger sensitizability than their glycosides. The system was proven to be precise, stable and reproducible, which lays a foundation for screening haptens in SXNI and relevant samples.

Capillary electrophoresis fingerprinting coupled with chemometrics to evaluate the quality consistency and predict the antioxidant activity of Sanhuang tablet as part of its quality control.

A capillary electrophoresis fingerprint was constructed for Sanhuang tablet, a Chinese traditional patent medicine, that was commonly used in clinical practice, where the isosceles trapezoid method was first applied for the optimization of background electrolyte solution, and the resolution index was performed to assess the experimental conditions; furthermore, a novel linear quantitative fingerprint method was established for accurate qualitative and quantitative discrimination of the test samples from diverse commercial brands. The fingerprint analysis coupled with quantitative determination of two components was employed to elucidate that the quality consistency of the products was relatively good within one manufactory, but poor among different companies for the 30 batches of samples. In addition, the fingerprint-efficacy relationship between chemical components and antioxidant activity in vitro was investigated using partial least squares analysis, and the calibration and prediction of the antioxidant activity of the selected samples via fingerprint data were presented with the desired results. This work illustrates that the proposed fingerprint analysis based on linear quantitative fingerprint method can be applied for the quality evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine and herbal preparations as part of their quality control, and the constructed mathematical model is particularly suitable for depicting the fingerprint-efficacy relationship.