Study on critical quality attributes of Qingjin Huatan Decoction based on serum pharmacochemistry / 中国中药杂志

Qingjin Huatan Decoction is a classic prescription with the effects of clearing heat, moistening lung, resolving phlegm, and relieving cough. In order to explore the critical quality attributes of Qingjin Huatan Decoction, we identified the blood components of Qingjin Huatan Decoction by ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry(UPLC-Q-TOF-MS) under the following conditions, chromatographic column: Acquity UPLC BEH C_(18) column(2.1 mm×100 mm, 1.7 μm); mobile phase: 0.1% formic acid acetonitrile(A)-0.1% formic acid in water(B); gradient elution; flow rate: 0.2 mL·min~(-1); column temperature: 30 ℃; injection volume: 5 μL. The electrospray ionization(ESI) source was used to collect data in both positive and negative ion modes under the following conditions, capillary voltage: 3 kV for the positive ion mode and 2 kV for the negative ion mode; ion source temperature: 110 ℃; cone voltage: 30 V; cone gas flow rate: 50 L·h~(-1); nitrogen degassing temperature: 350 ℃; degassing volume flow rate: 800 L·h~(-1); scanning range: m/z 50-2 000. In this experiment, a total of 66 related components of Qingjin Huatan Decoction were identified, including 22 prototype components and 44 metabolites. The results of this study preliminarily revealed the pharmacodynamic material basis of Qingjin Huatan Decoction in vivo, which has provided an experimental basis for the determination of quality markers of Qingjin Huatan Decoction and the development of new drugs.

Analysis and prediction of quality markers of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos / 中国中药杂志

Lonicerae Japonicae Flos, as common Chinese medicine, has been used for thousands of years in the treatment of inflammation and infectious diseases with definite efficacies. The complex composition of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos results in its extensive pharmacological effects, so the assessment of its quality by only a few index components is not comprehensive. Guided by the quality marker(Q-marker), the present study comprehensively analyzed and predicted the quality connotation of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos based on the chemical composition and component transfer, the phylogenetic relationship, chemical composition effectiveness, measurability, and specificity. Chlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acids A, B, and C, luteoloside, rutin, sweroside, and secoxyloganin were predicted as candidate Q-markers of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos.

Identification of Q-markers for Cistanches Herba based on HPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS and network pharmacology / 中国中药杂志

This study aims to establish a method for analyzing the chemical constituents in Cistanches Herba by high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) and quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry(HPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS), and to reveal the pharmacological mechanism based on network pharmacology for mining the quality markers(Q-markers) of Cistanches Herba. The chemical constituents of Cistanche deserticola and C. tubulosa were analyzed via HPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS. The potential targets and pathways of Cistanches Herba were predicted via SwissTargetPrediction and DAVID. The compound-target-pathway-pharmacological action-efficacy network was constructed via Cytoscape. A total of 47 chemical constituents were identified, involving 95 targets and 56 signaling pathways. We preliminarily elucidated the pharmacological mechanisms of echinacoside, acteoside, isoacteoside, cistanoside F, 2'-acetylacteoside, cistanoside A, campneoside Ⅱ, salidroside, tubuloside B, 6-deoxycatalpol, 8-epi-loganic acid, ajugol, bartsioside, geniposidic acid, and pinoresinol 4-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, and predicted them to be the Q-markers of Cistanches Herba. This study identified the chemical constituents of Cistanches Herba, explained the pharmacological mechanism of the traditional efficacy of Cistanches Herba based on network pharmacology, and introduced the core concept of Q-markers to improve the quality evaluation of Cistanches Herba.